The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

A washed up producer (Kirk Douglas) tries to get his former friends to make another picture to revive his career. The three, a director (Barry Sullivan), star (Lana Turner), and screenwriter (Dick Powell), recount their story of how they fell out with him.

Nominated for six academy awards and winning five, Hollywood is a sucker for stories about Hollywood, and apparently so am I. The three stories do not overlap much and illustrate the extent Douglas’ Jonathan is willing to go to further his interests. The now successful three must ask themselves if they can put their feelings aside to now help their former mentor. 

Gloria Grahame won an Oscar nine and a half minutes of a fair southern accent. It would be the shortest screen time for an acting Oscar at the time ... I'm happy to say. Leo G. Carroll has a brief role as a difficult director and Barbara Billingsley makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance five years before becoming June Cleaver.

Many of the characters are thinly-veiled versions of real contemporary people. I will out David O. Selznick as a primary inspiration for our main character, but you can read the details for yourself. Selznick even contacted a lawyer to see if there were grounds to sue.

The Bad and the Beautiful is expert storytelling. The performances are excellent (Douglas uses his “angry Kirk” voice only once), the script is tight, and the story compelling. The film came highly recommended and I came to it very late. I should have believed it. AMRU 4.5.