Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
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
Leo G. Carroll
Henry Whitfield
Gilbert Roland
Victor "Gaucho" Ribera
Paul Stewart
Syd Murphy
Vanessa Brown
Kay Amiel
Elaine Stewart
Lila
Sammy White
Gus
Ivan Triesault
Von Ellstein
Lucy Knoch
Blonde Dancing with Gaucho (uncredited)
Jay Adler
Mr. Z (uncredited)
Stanley Andrews
Sheriff (uncredited)
Del Armstrong
Georgia's Makeup Artist (uncredited)
Ben Astar
Joe (Party Guest) (uncredited)
Barbara Billingsley
Evelyn Lucien (Costumer) (uncredited)
John Bishop
Ferraday (uncredited)
Madge Blake
Mrs. Rosser (uncredited)
Marshall Bradford
Man Outside the Club (uncredited)
Paul Bradley
Party Guest (uncredited)
Hadda Brooks
Piano Player (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks
Mourner (uncredited)
Robert Burton
McDill (uncredited)
Francis X. Bushman
Eulogist (uncredited)
Louis Calhern
Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
Marietta Canty
Ida (uncredited)
Robert Carson
Casting Director (uncredited)
Beulah Christian
Party Guest (uncredited)
Janet Comerford
Bobby-Soxer (uncredited)
James Conaty
Party Guest (uncredited)
Jonathan Cott
Assistant Director (uncredited)
Lillian Culver
Real Estate Woman (uncredited)
Alexis Davidoff
Priest (uncredited)
Bob Davis
Assistant (uncredited)
Sandy Descher
Little Girl Screaming on "Cat Man" Set (uncredited)
Helen Dickson
Symposium Guest (uncredited)
Phil Dunham
Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Steve Dunhill
Cameraman (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum
Assistant on Set (uncredited)
James Farrar
Publicity Man (uncredited)
Bess Flowers
Joe's Friend at Party (uncredited)
Charles Fogel
Poker Player (uncredited)
George Ford
Club Patron (uncredited)
Steve Forrest
Actor in Georgia's Screen Test (uncredited)
Kathleen Freeman
Miss March (uncredited)
Rudy Germane
Party Guest (uncredited)
Frank Gerstle
Gabby Agent at the Party (uncredited)
Joe Gilbert
Party Guest (uncredited)
Ned Glass
Wardrobe Man (uncredited)
James Gonzalez
Party Guest (uncredited)
Phyllis Graffeo
Leading Lady (uncredited)
Herschel Graham
Party Guest (uncredited)
A. Cameron Grant
Assistant Director (uncredited)
Marion Gray
Symposium Guest (uncredited)
William E. Green
Hugo Shields (uncredited)
Dabbs Greer
Studio Lighting Technician (uncredited)
Robert Haines
Mourner (uncredited)
Sam Harris
Party Guest (uncredited)
Dick Johnstone
Mourner (uncredited)
Ted Jordan
Assistant Director (uncredited)
Joseph Keane
Assistant Director (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp
Mourner (uncredited)
Peggy King
Singer at Party (uncredited)
Mike Lally
Preview Ticket Taker (uncredited)
Louise Lane
Party Guest (uncredited)
George J. Lewis
"Far Away Mountain" Test Actor #2 (uncredited)
Wilbur Mack
Party Guest (uncredited)
Paul Marion
Spanish Actor in Screen Test (uncredited)
Paul Maxey
Man Talking to Gabby Agent at the Party (uncredited)
May McAvoy
Pebbel's Secretary (uncredited)
Harold Miller
Mourner (uncredited)
Hans Moebus
Party Guest (uncredited)
Patrick J. Molyneaux
Studio Electrician (uncredited)
Roger Moore
Cigar Clerk (uncredited)
Ellanora Needles
Reporter (uncredited)
Richard Norris
Leading Man (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien
Waiter at Party (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley
Man Outside the Club (uncredited)
Christopher Olsen
Amiel's Boy (uncredited)
Dorothy Patrick
Arlene (uncredited)
William Phillips
Assistant Director (uncredited)
Murray Pollack
Theatre Worker (uncredited)
Paul Power
Theatre Manager (uncredited)
Kathy Qualen
Bobby-Soxer (uncredited)
Anthony Redondo
Crew Member (uncredited)
Jeff Richards
Studio Props Department Man (uncredited)
Loretta Russell
Symposium Guest (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre
Waiter (uncredited)
Frank J. Scannell
Reporter (uncredited)
Perry Sheehan
Pebbel's Secretary (uncredited)
George Sherwood
Cameraman (uncredited)
Reginald Simpson
Poker Player (uncredited)
Mabel Smaney
Heavy Woman (uncredited)
Norman Stevans
Theatre Worker (uncredited)
William Tannen
Reporter (uncredited)
Dee Turnell
Linda Ronley (uncredited)
Harry Tyler
Man (uncredited)
Kaaren Verne
Rosa (uncredited)
Ray Walker
Cameraman (uncredited)
Harte Wayne
Judge (uncredited)
Lawrence A. Williams
Poker Player (uncredited)
Eric Wilton
Butler (uncredited)
Wilson Wood
Man on Movie Set (uncredited)
Douglas Yorke
Leading Man (uncredited)
Helen Young
Georgia's Hair Stylist (uncredited)
Director
Vincente Minnelli
Screenplay
Charles Schnee
Story
George Bradshaw
August 30, 2022
5
The Bad and the Beautiful is sort of like Old Hollywood’s Rashomon. Three characters appear before a fourth to tell a story about a fifth; the three stories are different but interrelated, and the moral of each is the same: studio chief Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) is a major a--hole and to know him is to hate him.
Each tale is bookended by film producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon) sarcastically condoling with the teller, pitying them for their blindness to the fact that Shields was a blessing in disguise. Without him, movie star Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner) was "a drunk and a tramp playing bit parts, and he made a star of you ... For the last seven years, you've been in the top 10 in every popularity poll. Yes, Jonathan sure fouled you up."
Screenwriter-turned-novelist James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) is told "Jonathan sure destroyed you. You came out of it with nothing. Nothing but a Pulitzer Prize novel and the highest salary of any writer in Hollywood."
As for director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), "[Shields] brushed you off his coattail, so you had to stand alone. And all you've got in the world is a wife, six kids, two Academy Awards and every stu-dio in town after you. Why, Jonathan ruined you!".
In all three cases, however, especially the third, it would seem as if the complainer got to where they are now despite, rather than because of, Shields.
Georgia and Bartlow he does help reach the summits of their respective trades — though it is worth noting that both were satisfied with their lots in life and had no interest in climbing to such heights in the first place —, which of course didn’t give him the right to crap all over their personal lives. And Amiel he screwed over on a profes-sional basis; used him and then kicked him to the curb.
As it turns out, Pebbel’s intended irony is only half-true; Shields did foul Georgia up, destroyed Bartlow, and ruined Amiel one way or another. That they pulled themselves up by their boots traps and continued to be successful is more a testament to their determination than to Shields’s alleged Midas touch.
To be sure, the film skimps a litte too much on Shields’s hubris. Yes, he naively assumes he can direct a movie himself and ends up bankrupting Shields Productions, but it is implied that he only failed because, for once, he wasn’t a bastard-coated bastard with bastard filling ("Jonathan the director was a new Jonathan. He was patience personified. He was tolerant, even-tempered, considerate and indulgent to his crew, his cast and his writer").
Moreover, Shields saves himself from well-deserved public scorn by shelving the movie instead of releasing it. Finally, even though it’s made clear that Shields needs Georgia, Bartlow, and Amiel more than they need him — as well as suggested that they might agree to work with him again, in spite of having every reason not to —, there’s no indication that Shields has changed for good.
Right before biting off more than he can chew, Shields is given great advice: "To direct a picture, a man needs humility. Do you have humility, Mr. Shields?". Having his crony Pebbel rub it in people’s faces all Shields supposedly did for them while downplaying how he hurt them doesn’t go a long way to answer that question in the affirmative.
All things considered, The Bad and the Beautiful is not unlike the film Shields drove to the ground;"beautifully" written, produced, photographed, etc., etc., but unsure of what it is that it wants to say about its subject matter.
P.S. A decade later Godard made Le Mépris, wherein he practiced what he preached (in order to cri-ticize a movie, you have to make another movie); Jack Palance’s producer’s contentious relations-hips with his scriptwriter and director (legendary Austrian-American filmmaker Fritz Lang as himself; The Bad and the Beautiful includes a character possibly modeled after Erich von Stroheim and Josef von Sternberg, no less legendary or Austrian-American than Lang) parallels those of Shields’s; furthermore, Palance — dressed to the nines and hair carefully slicked back — looks to have styled himself after Douglas.
The difference is that Le Mépris made no pretense that its antagonistic film producer was ever any-thing other than a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk , as opposed to The Bad and the Beautiful’s Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$1,558,000.00
Revenue:
$3,373,000.00