The Bad and the Beautiful

Infobox Film | name =The Bad and the Beautiful


caption = Promotional movie poster for the film
director = Vincente Minnelli
producer = John Houseman
writer =George Bradshaw (story "Tribute to a Badman")
Charles Schnee
starring =Lana Turner
Kirk Douglas
Walter Pidgeon
Dick Powell
Barry Sullivan
Gloria Grahame
music = David Raksin
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = December 1952 (U.S. release)
runtime = 118 min.
language = English
budget = $1,558,000 (estimated)
imdb_id = 0044391

"The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) is a MGM melodramatic film which tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, and Gloria Grahame.

The film was written by George Bradshaw and Charles Schnee and directed by Vincente Minnelli. It won Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Gloria Grahame), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White and Best Writing, Screenplay. Kirk Douglas was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. As of 2007, "The Bad and the Beautiful" holds the record for the most Oscars won by a movie (five) that was not nominated for Best Picture. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044391/trivia The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) - Trivia ] ]

In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

There has been much debate as to which real-life Hollywood legends are represented by the film's characters. Jonathan Shields is thought to be a blending of David O. Selznick, Orson Welles and Val Lewton. [cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/bada.html |title=The Bad And The Beautiful (1952) |publisher=filmsite.org |author=Tim Dirks] The Georgia Lorrison character is the daughter of a "Great Profile" actor (like John Barrymore) but also includes elements of Minnelli's ex-wife Judy Garland. [cite web |url=http://blog.spout.com/2007/08/15/star-making-as-fetish-the-bad-and-the-beautiful/ |title=Star-making as Fetish: The Bad and the Beautiful |publisher=blog.spout.com |author=Karina Longworth |date=August 15 2007] The director Henry Whitfield (Leo G. Carroll) is a "difficult" director modeled on Alfred Hitchcock, and his assistant Miss March (Kathleen Freeman) is modeled on Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville.

Plot

Screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell), actress Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), and movie director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), shown at work in different locations in Hollywood, each get a phone call from someone named Shields in Paris--and each refuses to talk to him. They soon get called by movie producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon), begging them to help Shields out. Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) is the "bad" man of the title. Originally the title did not include "beautiful," which refers to Turner, who was eventually given top billing.

The backstory of their involvement with Shields unfolds. Shields is the son of a notorious old filmmaker who had been dumped by the film industry. He was so unpopular that his son has to hire "extras" to attend his funeral. Shields is determined to make it in Hollywood. The three associates each become successes through Shields, and each is betrayed by him.

In a flashback, Shields partners with aspiring assistant director Amiel, whom he meets at his father's funeral, Amiel being the only other attendee not paid to be there. Shields gets into a high-stakes poker game with Pebbel and loses a lot of money to him so that he can talk Pebbel into letting him work off the debt by making low-budget films for him. Shields and Amiel learn their trade and their movies do well. Amiel decides that he is ready to film a project he has been nursing along, one that he knows will make his name. Shields pitches it to the studio and gets a much larger budget to work with. But when it goes into production, Shields agrees to let someone with a more established reputation direct it.

Next, Shields encounters alcoholic small-time actress Lorrison, the daughter of a famous actor Shields admired. He builds up her confidence, and gives her the leading role in one of his movies, over everyone else's objections. She falls in love with him; he lets her think that he feels the same way in order to get the performance he needs from her. But after a smash premiere that makes her a star, she finds him alone with a beautiful bit player Laila (Elaine Stewart). Shields drives Lorrison away, telling her that he will never allow anyone to have that much control over him.

Finally, there is Bartlow, a contented professor at a small college. Shields wants to turn his bestselling book into a film and have him write the script. Bartlow is not interested, but his shallow Southern belle wife, Rosemary (Gloria Grahame) is, and he agrees to do it for her sake. When they go to Hollywood, Shields is annoyed to find that she keeps distracting her husband from his work, so he gets his suave actor friend Victor "Gaucho" Ribera (Gilbert Roland) to keep her occupied. Freed from her interruptions, Bartlow has no trouble finishing the script. However, Rosemary runs off with Gaucho; they are killed in a plane crash. Later, when Shields accidentally reveals his meddling, Bartlow leaves too.

Shields finally directs a film himself instead of just producing it, but he botches it. Everybody does his or her part admirably, but the result is a mess. Shields stubbornly refuses to release it and is bankrupted.

The film comes full circle back to the beginning. All three of his former friends show up at Pebbel's office and reject Shield's offer again. Pebbel sarcastically agrees with them that Shields has "ruined" their lives: they are all now at the top of their professions. As they start to leave, Pebbel is still talking to Shields; they are intrigued by what they hear and eavesdrop on another phone while Shields describes his new movie as the film fades to the credits (featuring a faux "Shields" logo).

Cast

References