The Bad and the Beautiful

The Bad and the Beautiful is as boldly entertaining as a glossy musical comedy. With a talented cast and enough action for three pictures, this fable of Hollywood whirls through two agreeable hours, but the final result is rather insignificant. A bankrupt motion picture producer, Jonathan Shields, begs his former director, leading lady, and script writer to make one last picture for him. Before deciding, each of them recalls his former association with Shields, and their three reminiscences are the bulk of the film.

In the first scenes, director Barry Sullivan relates how young, struggling Shields took credit for Sullivan's prize script. This incident is only a prologue to Shields and his ruthlessness. Similarly, after the length and power of the second story, Shield's third betrayal is nearly an anti-climax. Dick Powcll, his victim, seems more the author of mystery stories than prize-winning novels and the plot of this sequence is but a soapy tale from radio serials. But Gloria Grahame, as a latter day Southern belle, drawls with a sultry sugared accent, more than covering any weaknesses in the episode.

It is the recollections of the star that are the basis of the film, however. Looking sleek and youthful, Lana Turner tears through a top-notch performance as a boozy actress. And Kirk Dougas, who is a scheming Shields in the first and third episodes, gives the producer more force and emotion in this second part. But the brilliance of the performers is not matched in the dialogue; too often it is the "drop dead" variety.

Because Hollywood is seldom objective about itself, The Bad and the Beautiful feints more than it punches. The moral of the film, spelled out in the script, reveals more about Hollywood than the entire picture. Though Shields has wronged them, the director, star, and author are now successful because of him. They are obligated, film executive Walter Pidgeon insists, to forgive Shields. Pidgeon assures the author that his recent Pulitzer Prize more than compensates for the loss of his wife. Since his wife is Miss Grahame, this reasoning is doubly faulty.