The Bad And The Beautiful (1952) We'd usually categorize movies about movies under Guilty Pleasures That Nobody In Their Right Mind Should Take Seriously......
(We had one hell of time writing that category on the tab of a file folder......)
Nevertheless, we could never resist any movie where Hollywood casts a jaundiced, cynical eye on its own people and practices........(we secretly smirk at the idea that these filmmakers think anyone outside their bubbled community could give a rat's ass about abused starlets, venal studio chiefs and tempestuous movie stars and their director-mentors.......)
Well......we guess we do get a royal kick out of watching all their bitchy, gossip-y crap unfold on the big screen......in the same we get a kick out of baby back ribs and french fries.......
"The Bad And The Beautiful" is generally considered a semi-classic in this highly specialized genre........telling about, almost entirely in flashbacks, the rise and fall of Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas at his jaw-clenching best) a fanatically driven producers and studio chief.
Shields is presented to us in the mold of all the iconic studio bosses, David O. Selznick, Jack Warner, Harry Cohn, Louis B. Mayer........in that he loves making movies more than life itself but personally, he's a conniving, backstabbing son of a bitch without a friend in the world......(and with good reasons)
And you know Shields is exactly like his much reviled late studio boss father......he has to pay mourners 11 bucks each to show up at his dad's funeral. ......reminding us of the famous gag about Columbia boss Harry Cohn's well attended burial.....("just goes to show ya.....give the people what they want and they''ll turn out for it....")
Shields Jr. remains offscreen during the two present-day sequences that bookend the movie, where his attempts to recruit three old enemies for a new film are met with repulsed contempt.
The enemies convene in front of their current mogul (Walter Pidgeon) who leads them into long flashbacks detailing each of their tortured histories with the soul-less, single minded Shields.
There's the southern-fried Pulitzer winning novelist (Dick Powell) brought out to Hollywood to adapt his book and toting his ditzy southern belle wife (Gloria Grahame(......then there's the brilliant director (Barry Sullivan) once thrown under the bus by Shields) and finally the centerpiece, the stunning but deeply neurotic movie goddess (Lana Turner), whom Shields turned into a steely superstar by intimidation and finally, rejection.
Fans of Hollywood lore, myths and history can have a ball matching these fictional characters to all the real people that they're obviously drawn from. We won't even throw out the names since that would spoil the fun of doing it yourself while you watch the film unfold.
At this point, we should address the many reviews and articles that compare this film to "Citizen Kane",,,,,,(in its flashback laden structure and its depiction of a ruthlessly ambitious, larger than life figure undone by his own reckless, hubris-filled pursuit of power and achievement....)
We wouldn't push the comparisons too far......as entertaining as it is, "The Bad..." is no Kane......director Vincente Minelli was something of a visual stylist himself, but he's just telling a pulply, soap opera-ish story here, he's not re-inventingany revolutionary cinema grammar here.....
Many, many familiar faces fill out the teeming supporting cast......but we simply must point out the best of them.....Ned Glass (later the exasperated adult in "West Side Story"),shines in a side-splitting role as a special effects costumer slapping together woeful 'Cat Men' outfits for a low budget horror film....
After over 2 hours of various betrayals, cruelties, tantrums, and psychological abuse, the film's best moment (and its best comment on Hollywood folk) arrives in its final shot......an almost too perfect way to end this story (and way ahead of its time for the amount of dry wit on display)
But you won't hear it from us.......we suggest you hop on the tour bus to Shields studio and find out for yourselves .All aboard......4 stars (****)
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