The Bad and the Beautiful

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The Bad and the Beautiful
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Vincente Minnelli
Produced by	John Houseman
Written by	George Bradshaw (story "Tribute to a Badman") Charles Schnee
Starring	Lana Turner Kirk Douglas Walter Pidgeon Dick Powell Barry Sullivan Gloria Grahame
Music by	David Raksin
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	December 1952 (U.S. release)
Running time	118 min.
Language	English
Budget	$1,558,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.

[edit] 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. Shields is determined to make it in Hollywood. The three associates each became successes through Shields, and each was betrayed by him.

In a flashback, Shields partners with aspiring assistant director Amiel. 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 stabs his friend in the back by agreeing 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 the objections of everyone else. She falls in love with him; he lets her think that he feels the same way in order to bring out the performance he needs from her. But after a smash premiere that makes her a star, she finds him keeping after-hours company with a beautiful bit player Laila (Elaine Stewart). Shields drives Lorrison away, telling her that he will never allow anyone have that much control over him.

Finally, there is Bartlow, a contented professor at a small college. Shields wants to turn his best-selling 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 lets Bartlow know about his meddling, Bartlow leaves too.

Shields finally directs a film himself, instead of producing it by manipulating others -- and botches it! Every worker in the studio does his or her part admirably, but the result is a mess. Shields refuses to release it, bankrupting him.

The film comes full circle back to the beginning, where he asks for help from his former friends. All three 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 listen in on another phone as Shields describes his new movie. As the film fades to the credits (featuring a faux "Shields" logo), Bartlow nods affirmatively to what he's overhearing, implying that the three later agree to make Shields' new movie.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Lana Turner	Georgia Lorrison
Kirk Douglas	Jonathan Shields
Walter Pidgeon	Harry Pebbel
Dick Powell	James Lee Bartlow
Barry Sullivan	Fred Amiel
Gloria Grahame	Rosemary Bartlow
Gilbert Roland	Victor 'Gaucho' Ribera
Leo G. Carroll	Henry Whitfield, a British director
Vanessa Brown	Kay Amiel, Fred's wife
Paul Stewart	Syd Murphy
Sammy White	Gus, Lorrison's over-emotional agent
Elaine Stewart	Lila
Ivan Triesault	Von Ellstein

[edit] References