Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

HotToastyRag I don't usually like movies that are told in flashbacks, but The Bad and the Beautiful is an exception. The start of the movie shows Lana Turner, Dick Powell, and Barry Sullivan, all successful in their Hollywood careers, refusing to take a call or speak to the character of Jonathan Shields. Walter Pidgeon summons all three to his office and one by one, we learn how each met, knew, and was influenced by Jonathan Shields-and of course, why they want nothing more to do with him. Jonathan Shields is played by Kirk Douglas, in an Oscar-nominated, fantastic performance. He wasn't nominated for the previous year's Ace in the Hole, and in one of the Academy's infamous travesties, the award for Best Actor of 1952 went to Gary Cooper for High Noon. If you haven't seen either movie, you don't know how ridiculous that is, but I urge you to rent both on a weekend and watch them back-to-back. Then feel free to lose a little respect for the Oscars.The cinematography, costumes, and screenplay were awarded that season, as was Gloria Grahame's mediocre performance. This was the first Kirk Douglas movie I saw, and it's one of his best. He's so charming and attentive to everyone's needs, but in the blink of an eye he can turn into a different, cruel person. I remember as a teenager, his chameleon persona was both frightening and terribly attractive. Each time I watch this movie, I'm reminded of why I'm a Kirk Douglas fan. If you've only seen him in Ulysses or Spartacus, you need to rent this one. No one makes bad look as good as Kirk Douglas-even the title of this movie agrees with me!

KylePowell The film starts off as an interesting concept. Three comrades in filmmaking recount their terrible experiences with a shared connection with flashbacks depicting said tales. A man who works for said connection begging them to reconcile with him and help him on his new project. What could go wrong?Although it has its moments, The Bad and the Beautiful failed to deliver for me overall. It wasn't as much the setting as it was the overall feel for the characters. For some reason it just didn't keep me as interested and involved as I had expected a melodrama to do.Overall, I honestly don't regret watching the film but I just feel it had more potential than what was shown.

gavin6942 In Hollywood, director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), movie star Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), and screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) each refuse to speak by phone to Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) in Paris. Movie producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon) gathers them in his office and explains that Shields was calling them because he has a new film idea and he wants the three of them for the project.I suppose Vincente Minnelli may be known for musicals, such as "Meet Me in St. Louis". Today (2016) he is probably better known for his marriage to Judy Garland and being the father of Liza Minnelli more than for his own work. A shame, especially given this one.Look at this cast: Douglas, Turner, Pidgeon... and the way they interact. The movie was big in its day, at least in part because it was a guessing game who the characters were based on. Now, we know for certain that "Cat Men" is obviously "Cat People"... but that does not make Douglas a version of Val Lewton...

SnoopyStyle Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon) tells James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell), Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), and Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan) that their mutual former friend, the hated producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), wants to produce a new movie with the their help. On his own, Jonathan couldn't raise a nickel anymore. The movie flashbacks as each one of them recount their lives with the scheming Jonathan. Director Fred Amiel meets Shields when he put on a funeral for his loner father. They rise together as Shields schemes to get producer Pebbel to hire them. However, Shields would eventually double cross him taking away a movie to a bigger director. Beautiful star Georgia Lorrison started off as a hungry bit actress haunted by her late great father. Her life is a drunken mess and Shields confronts her. Under his nurturing care, she becomes a big star and she falls for him. However he rejects her possessiveness and tells her that he was just handling her after catching him with another woman. Bartlow was a small college professor who wrote a best seller book. Shields bought the rights and hires him as the screenwriter but his annoying wife keeps getting into the way. Shields hires a gigolo actor to distract her and they run off together getting killed in a plane crash. Shields eventually tells him which he uses to write a Pulitzer Prize winning book. All three have grudges but Pebbel points out that Shields made each one of them into the stars that they are today.The big guessing game is what each one of these characters are based on. That's half the fun of this movie. Without that, this is a solid melodrama. The splitting of the movie into three does take away the flow. Sometime around the third section, I lost a little bit of interest. I think it started with the overzealous acting at the end of Lana Turner's section. I would have switched the order of the three sections since that confrontation seems to be so climatic with the writer being second and Lana Turner being the last. After the Douglas and Turner blowup, there's nowhere for the movie to go except to wrap up.