The Bad and the beautiful

The Bad and the beautiful casts a sharp eye on the studio system of Hollywood and its machinations. Legendary (mythical) Hollywood producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) is a ruthless, amoral player in the film game, who has a slew of great films to his credit and a chorus of detractors to match. Shields’ rise to fame and power is told from three perspectives - the actress, the director and the writer. Each provides the audience with extensive flashback sequences that regale a story of their dealings with Shields. In each case Shields manipulated the individual for his own ends, to the detriment of his personal relationships. Douglas plays Shields as a charming authoritarian patriarch whose humanitarian misdeeds are to be forgiven in the name of art. Purportedly based on Darryl F. Zanuck (a key Hollywood player in the 1950s and 1960s), Shields could indeed reflect any number of megalomaniac studio heads. Directed by Vincenti Minelli, the film is a lush melodrama, typical of the MGM style of the 1950s and won numerous awards including five Oscars. Also starring: Lana Tuner, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan and Gloria Grahame.