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The Bad and the Beautiful Overview:

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by John Houseman.

SYNOPSIS

Turner shines in a sharp portrayal of moviemaking - and climbing the Hollywood ladder. Told in flashbacks from the point of view of an actress, a writer, and a studio executive. Old Hollywood hands Minnelli and Houseman provide plenty of backstage detail.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

The Bad and the Beautiful was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002.

Academy Awards 1952 --- Ceremony Number 25 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorKirk DouglasNominated
Best Supporting ActressGloria GrahameWon
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno; Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis, Keogh GleasonWon
Best CinematographyRobert SurteesWon
Best Costume DesignHelen RoseWon
Best WritingCharles SchneeWon
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The Bad and the Beautiful BlogHub Articles:

On Blu-Ray: The Luscious, Vicious Hollywood of The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

By KC on Jan 8, 2020 From Classic Movies

In telling the story of a charismatic cad, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) encapsulates all the glory, glamour, despair, and depravity of Hollywood. Director Vincente Minnelli’s portrait of the manipulative filmmaker Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) feels so real that you can’t help wond... Read full article

OH OSCAR : The real THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (An Opinion)

By Terry on Feb 24, 2019 From Stardust and Shadows

STARDUST AND SHADOWS takes a brief break from our content to offer an opinion of on the troubled institution for Film fans which of course is The Academy Awards. Unless you live some place where there is no News or frankly you really “don’t give a damn” you would know that the Acad... Read full article

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 16, 2018 From 4 Star Films

The people making the decisions, at least some of them, undoubtedly knew that this title implied some sort of sordid melodrama, a Douglas Sirk picture anyone? And yet I do admit despite the emptiness in the title, there’s some truth to its implications. Hollywood often is this gaudy, outrageo... Read full article

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

By Beatrice on Sep 3, 2015 From Flickers in Time

The Bad and the Beautiful Directed by Vicente Minnelli Written by Charles Schnee, story by George Bradshaw 1952/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant #257 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Classic Hollywood certainly wasn’t afraid to show its dark side.  This is ... Read full article

SPELLBINDER: The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

By The Lady Eve on Aug 4, 2014 From Lady Eve's Reel Life

Hollywood films about Hollywood behind the scenes didn’t begin or end with Vincente Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), but none has painted a more glamorous/gimlet-eyed portrait or better mirrored the town’s notion of itself at a particular moment. It was mid-20th century... Read full article

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The Bad and the Beautiful Quotes:

James Lee Bartlow: I started to work.
Jonathan Shields: If you dream, dream big.
Jonathan Shields: [whistles] Gentlemen! There seems to be an honest difference of opinion.
Harry Pebbel: There is.
Jonathan Shields: It looks as though we'll have to make a compromise.
Harry Pebbel: You bet we will.
Jonathan Shields: The compromise, gentlemen, is this: Harry, shut your penny-pinching mouth and build him his platform!
Jonathan Shields: Don't worry. Some of the best movies are made by people working together who hate each other's guts.
Fred: [after Jonathan's father dies broke and disgraced] Are you going to change your name?
Jonathan Shields: Change it? I'm gonna ram the name of Shields down their throats!
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The Bad and the Beautiful Facts
Kirk Douglas stands no more than 5'9" and wears super high lifts that almost distort his walking. If you look closely at him in long shots you can spot the lifts (it's really apparent in Seven Days in May).
Leo G. Carroll's brief appearance as a "demanding" director is a thinly veiled reference to Alfred Hitchcock. When he first came to Hollywood, Hitchcock was under contract to producer David O. Selznick for years. Carroll had roles in many Hitchcock films of this era.
The photograph of Kirk Douglas' detested studio-head father, which Barry Sullivan straightens on the wall in this MGM film, looks exactly like Jack L. Warner, the head of Warner Bros. - MGM's competitor.
Lana Turner plays an actor whose career started as a movie extra. Turner started her own career as an extra in A Star Is Born.
Ned Glass, who plays the wardrobe man in the cat costume scene, was an active member of the Living Newspaper unit of the Federal Theater project on Broadway during the Depression, an organization accused of being "leftist" and "pro-communist" by many on the political right. When Glass was blacklisted during the McCarthy "Red scare" era, he became a carpenter.
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