M-G-M. Director Vincente Minnelli; Producer John Houseman; Screenplay Charles Schnee; Camera Robert Surtees; Editor Conrad A. Nervig; Music David Raksin; Art Director Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno
Kirk Douglas
Lana Turner
Walter Pidgeon
Dick Powell
Barry Sullivan
Gloria Grahame
Contemporary Hollywood, including composites of the characters that make the town the glamour capital it is, is the setting for The Bad and the Beautiful.
It is the story of a first-class heel, a ruthless, driving individual whose insistent push changes a number of lives to the end that all have benefited in some way from his multiple double-crosses, despite the personal sorrow or loss experienced. The screenplay of the George Bradshaw story is exceptionally well-written.
Kirk Douglas scores as the ruthless individual out to prove he is the best when it comes to making pictures. Swung along with him is Lana Turner, the drunken, inferiority-complexed daughter of a former screen great; Dick Powell, the self-satisfied southern professor-writer who is pulled into the Hollywood mill; and Barry Sullivan, who, as an embryo director, gets Douglas his first chance and is double-crossed for the helping hand.
1952: Best Supp. Actress (Gloria Grahame), Screenplay, B&W Cinematography, B&W Art Direction, B&W Costume Design.
Nomination: Best Actor (Kirk Douglas)
(B&W) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1952. Running time: 116 MIN.
Contact Variety Staff at
news@variety.com