The Bad and the Beautiful

1952 118 min ★ 7.3 Drama, Romance

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.

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Cast

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

Details

Director

Vincente Minnelli

Screenplay

Charles Schnee

Tagline

"I took you out of the gutter... I can fling you back!"

Status

Released

Original Language

EN

Budget

$1,558,000

Revenue

$3,373,000

Production

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Reviews

T

tmdb28039023

August 30, 2022

★ 5/10

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) sarcast...

C

CinemaSerf

March 25, 2023

★ 7/10

It all starts with poor old Walter Pidgeon ("Harry") assembling "Georgia" (Lana Turner), "Fred" (Barry Sullivan) and "Bartlow" (Dick Powell) in his office so he can persuade then to write, direct and star in one last picture for their nemesis "Jonathan Shields" (Kirk Douglas). They loathe him - with a passion, and "Harry" knows he has his work cut out if he is convince them. His preferred method i...