The Bad and the Beautiful
Encyclopedia
The Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 MGM
melodrama
tic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner
, Kirk Douglas
, Walter Pidgeon
, Dick Powell
, Barry Sullivan
, Gloria Grahame
and Gilbert Roland
.
The film was written by George Bradshaw and Charles Schnee
and directed by Vincente Minnelli
. It won Academy Awards
for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
(Gloria Grahame), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
(Cedric Gibbons
, Edward Carfagno
, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White
and Best Writing, Screenplay. Douglas was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role
.
The Bad and the Beautiful holds the record for most Oscars won (five) by a movie that was not nominated for Best Picture
.
In 2002 the United States Library of Congress
deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
.
), movie star Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner
), and director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan
) 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 begs them to help Shields out.
The backstory of their involvement with Shields unfolds. Shields is the son of a notorious old filmmaker who had been dumped by the industry. He was so unpopular that his son had to hire "extras" to attend his funeral. Shields is determined to make it in Hollywood by any means necessary.
In a flashback, Shields partners with aspiring director Amiel, whom he meets at his father's funeral. In a poker game, Shields intentionally loses money he does not have to film executive Pebbel so he can talk Pebbel into letting him work off the debt. Shields and Amiel learn their respective trades making low-budget films for him. Amiel decides he is ready to film a project he has been nursing along. Shields pitches it to the studio. He gets a large budget to produce the film, but has to betray Amiel by letting someone with an established reputation direct it.
Shields next encounters alcoholic small-time actress Lorrison, the daughter of a famous actor Shields admired. He builds up her confidence and gives her the leading role in one of his movies over everyone else's objections. When she falls in love with him, he lets her think that he feels the same way so that she does not self-destruct and he gets the performance he needs. After a smash premiere makes her a star overnight, she finds him with a beautiful bit player named Laila (Elaine Stewart
). He drives Lorrison away, telling her that he will never allow anyone to have that much control over him.
Finally, Bartlow is a contented professor at a small college who has written a bestselling book. Shields wants to turn it into a film and have him write the script. Bartlow is not interested, but his shallow Southern belle wife, Rosemary (Gloria Grahame
) is, so he agrees to do it for her sake. They go to Hollywood, where Shields is annoyed to find that her constant distractions are keeping her husband from his work. He gets his suave actor friend Victor "Gaucho" Ribera (Gilbert Roland
) to keep her occupied. Freed from interruption, Bartlow has no trouble finishing the script. Rosemary, however, runs off with Gaucho and they are killed in a plane crash. Shields employs Bartlow to help him produce the film. On the fourth day of filming, Shields disagrees with the director, and decides to direct a film himself. It is the first time Shields has directed a film, and he botches it, which leads to his bankruptcy. Then Shields slips and reveals that he knew Gaucho was going away with Rosemary, so Bartlow walks out on him.
The story comes full circle to the beginning. When all three reject Shields' offer to work together again, Pebbel sarcastically agrees that Shields "ruined" their lives. They are all now at the top of their professions. As they leave, Pebbel is still talking to Shields. Out of his sight, the three eavesdrop on another phone while Shields describes his new idea and become more and more interested.
There has been much debate as to which real-life Hollywood legends are represented by the film's characters. Jonathan Shields is thought to be a blending of David O. Selznick
, Orson Welles
and Val Lewton
. Lewton's Cat People
is clearly the inspiration behind an early Shields-Amiel film. The Georgia Lorrison character is the daughter of a "Great Profile" actor like John Barrymore
(Diana Barrymore
's career was in fact launched the same year as her father's death), but it can also be argued that Lorrison includes elements of Minnelli's ex-wife Judy Garland
. Gilbert Roland
's Gaucho may almost be seen as self-parody, as he had recently starred in a series of Cisco Kid pictures, though the character's name, Ribera, would seem to give a nod also to famed Hollywood seducer Porfirio Rubirosa
. The director Henry Whitfield (Leo G. Carroll
) is a "difficult" director modeled on Alfred Hitchcock
, and his assistant Miss March (Kathleen Freeman
) is modeled on Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville
. The James Lee Barlow character may have been inspired by Paul Eliot Green, the University of North Carolina academic-turned-screenwriter of The Cabin in the Cotton
.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
tic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
, Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
, Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
, Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
, Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
and Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
.
The film was written by George Bradshaw and Charles Schnee
Charles Schnee
Charles Schnee gave up law to become a screenwriter in the mid-1940s, crafting scripts for the classic Westerns Red River and The Furies , the social melodrama They Live By Night , and the cynical Hollywood saga The Bad and the Beautiful , for which he won an Academy...
and directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
. It won Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Gloria Grahame), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(Cedric Gibbons
Cedric Gibbons
Austin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...
, Edward Carfagno
Edward Carfagno
Edward Carfagno was an art director who established himself in the 1950s with his Oscar-winning work on such films as Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful , Joseph Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar and William Wyler's Ben-Hur...
, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason
F. Keogh Gleason
Francis Keogh Gleason was a resident set decorator at MGM studios for over 40 years. In that time he won 4 Academy Awards and was nominated an additional 3 times.-External links:...
), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
and Best Writing, Screenplay. Douglas was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
.
The Bad and the Beautiful holds the record for most Oscars won (five) by a movie that was not nominated for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
In 2002 the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Plot
In Hollywood, screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick PowellDick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
), movie star Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
), and director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
) each refuse to speak by phone to Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
) in Paris. Movie producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
) gathers them in his office and begs them to help Shields out.
The backstory of their involvement with Shields unfolds. Shields is the son of a notorious old filmmaker who had been dumped by the industry. He was so unpopular that his son had to hire "extras" to attend his funeral. Shields is determined to make it in Hollywood by any means necessary.
In a flashback, Shields partners with aspiring director Amiel, whom he meets at his father's funeral. In a poker game, Shields intentionally loses money he does not have to film executive Pebbel so he can talk Pebbel into letting him work off the debt. Shields and Amiel learn their respective trades making low-budget films for him. Amiel decides he is ready to film a project he has been nursing along. Shields pitches it to the studio. He gets a large budget to produce the film, but has to betray Amiel by letting someone with an established reputation direct it.
Shields next encounters alcoholic small-time actress Lorrison, the daughter of a famous actor Shields admired. He builds up her confidence and gives her the leading role in one of his movies over everyone else's objections. When she falls in love with him, he lets her think that he feels the same way so that she does not self-destruct and he gets the performance he needs. After a smash premiere makes her a star overnight, she finds him with a beautiful bit player named Laila (Elaine Stewart
Elaine Stewart
Elaine Stewart was an American actress and model.-Life:Stewart was born in Montclair, New Jersey as Elsy Steinberg. She was one of five children born into a German Jewish family. In 1961, nearing the end of her television career, she married actor Bill Carter...
). He drives Lorrison away, telling her that he will never allow anyone to have that much control over him.
Finally, Bartlow is a contented professor at a small college who has written a bestselling book. Shields wants to turn it into a film and have him write the script. Bartlow is not interested, but his shallow Southern belle wife, Rosemary (Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
) is, so he agrees to do it for her sake. They go to Hollywood, where Shields is annoyed to find that her constant distractions are keeping her husband from his work. He gets his suave actor friend Victor "Gaucho" Ribera (Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
) to keep her occupied. Freed from interruption, Bartlow has no trouble finishing the script. Rosemary, however, runs off with Gaucho and they are killed in a plane crash. Shields employs Bartlow to help him produce the film. On the fourth day of filming, Shields disagrees with the director, and decides to direct a film himself. It is the first time Shields has directed a film, and he botches it, which leads to his bankruptcy. Then Shields slips and reveals that he knew Gaucho was going away with Rosemary, so Bartlow walks out on him.
The story comes full circle to the beginning. When all three reject Shields' offer to work together again, Pebbel sarcastically agrees that Shields "ruined" their lives. They are all now at the top of their professions. As they leave, Pebbel is still talking to Shields. Out of his sight, the three eavesdrop on another phone while Shields describes his new idea and become more and more interested.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Lana Turner Lana Turner Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy... |
Georgia Lorrison |
| Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K... |
Jonathan Shields |
| Walter Pidgeon Walter Pidgeon Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs... |
Harry Pebbel |
| Dick Powell Dick Powell Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:... |
James Lee Bartlow |
| Barry Sullivan Barry Sullivan (actor) Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football... |
Fred Amiel |
| Gloria Grahame Gloria Grahame Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios... |
Rosemary Bartlow |
| Gilbert Roland Gilbert Roland Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was... |
Victor "Gaucho" Ribera |
| Leo G. Carroll Leo G. Carroll Leo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:... |
Henry Whitfield, a British director |
| Vanessa Brown Vanessa Brown Vanessa Brown was an Austrian-American actress who was successful in radio, film, theater, and television.-Early life:... |
Kay Amiel, Fred's wife |
| Paul Stewart Paul Stewart (actor) Paul Stewart was an American character actor known for his tough, guttural voice. He frequently portrayed villains and mobsters throughout his lengthy career.... |
Syd Murphy, Shield's press agent |
| Sammy White Sammy White (actor) Sammy White was an American vaudeville song-and-dance comedian who appeared in a few films. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He appeared with Lew Clayton, as Clayton and White, in the Broadway show Schubert Gaieties of 1919.With his first wife, Eva Puck, White appeared in vaudeville as... |
Gus, Lorrison's over-emotional agent |
| Elaine Stewart Elaine Stewart Elaine Stewart was an American actress and model.-Life:Stewart was born in Montclair, New Jersey as Elsy Steinberg. She was one of five children born into a German Jewish family. In 1961, nearing the end of her television career, she married actor Bill Carter... |
Lila |
| Ivan Triesault Ivan Triesault -Life:His first stage appearance was at the German Theatre in Tallinn aged 14, before moving to the United States aged 18. There he began to train in acting and dance, working on Broadway before moving into film. His notable roles include appearances in The Mummy's Ghost , The Story of Dr... |
Von Ellstein |
There has been much debate as to which real-life Hollywood legends are represented by the film's characters. Jonathan Shields is thought to be a blending of David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
and Val Lewton
Val Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
. Lewton's Cat People
Cat People
Cat People is a 1942 horror film produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. DeWitt Bodeen wrote the original screenplay which was based on Val Lewton's short story The Bagheeta published in 1930. The film stars Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph and Tom Conway.Cat People was...
is clearly the inspiration behind an early Shields-Amiel film. The Georgia Lorrison character is the daughter of a "Great Profile" actor like John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
(Diana Barrymore
Diana Barrymore
Diana Barrymore was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Born Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe in New York City, New York, she was the daughter of renowned actor John Barrymore and his second wife, poet Blanche Oelrichs...
's career was in fact launched the same year as her father's death), but it can also be argued that Lorrison includes elements of Minnelli's ex-wife Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
. Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
's Gaucho may almost be seen as self-parody, as he had recently starred in a series of Cisco Kid pictures, though the character's name, Ribera, would seem to give a nod also to famed Hollywood seducer Porfirio Rubirosa
Porfirio Rubirosa
Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza was a Dominican diplomat and adherent of Rafael Trujillo. He made his mark as an international playboy, for his jet setting lifestyle, and his legendary prowess with women...
. The director Henry Whitfield (Leo G. Carroll
Leo G. Carroll
Leo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:...
) is a "difficult" director modeled on Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, and his assistant Miss March (Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman was an American film, television, and stage actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed tart maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors, almost invariably to comic effect.-Early life:Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois...
) is modeled on Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville
Alma Reville
Alma Reville, Lady Hitchcock was an English assistant director, screenwriter and editor. She was the second daughter of Edward and Lucy Reville....
. The James Lee Barlow character may have been inspired by Paul Eliot Green, the University of North Carolina academic-turned-screenwriter of The Cabin in the Cotton
The Cabin in the Cotton
The Cabin in the Cotton is a 1932 American drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay by Paul Green is based on the novel of the same title by Harry Harrison Kroll....
.