Rating: 
Summary: BAD OR BEAUTIFUL? - THERE'S BOTH ON THIS DVD
Review: "The Bad and The Beautiful" is one of those great, gritty tales of Hollywood told with ultra-chic glamor and sophistication. Kirk Douglas is a has-been producer whose hard luck has cost him some serious alliances in the industry. The star, Lana Turner, the screenwriter, George Murphy and the director, Dick Powell are the people done wrong. Walter Pigeon is the man in the mogul's chair, trying to get Kirk his last big break. Plenty of on-screen chemistry, tension and great casting make this film an outstanding drama.
Warner Home Video's DVD is both bad and beautiful in terms of its picture quality. We get a very nice, smooth looking transfer with much of the film grain and age related artifacts cleaned up. But there are moments where edge enhancement, shimmering and aliasing are so bad, you just can't help but get distracted away from the fine performances taking place underneath all that digital mess. When the image is free from these anamolies, contrast and black levels are superb. The audio, mono, is potent, powerful and masterfully recreated.
EXTRAS: Lana Turner: A Daughter Remembers, is the brilliant documentary featured on TCM. It's intense, investigatory and blindingly original, following Turner's rise from starlet to superstar. Also, isolated music cues and the film's original trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: The actual film print, for the above mentioned reasons, is disappointing, though it looks better than it ever has before. Regardless, I still have to recommend this disc, if for nothing else, the documentary on side two. Now if the Warner wizards could only get a firm handle on their bit rate. Hmmmm!
Rating: 
Summary: One of Lana's Finest . . .
Review: A dishy, inside look at Hollywood. Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner turn up the heat; both deliver stellar performances. Well paced, beautifully produced, cleverly written. My favorite scene: Lana's wild ride on a rainsoaked highway, just after discovering Kirk Douglas, with another woman. Watch for it.
Rating:
Summary: THORNS AND ROSES, HOLLYWOOD STYLE.....
Review: An ambitious wanna-be producer walks all over everyone to get to the top and then needs their help when he hits the bottom. Kirk Douglas as Shields the producer is just fine. Those he uses and abuses include Lana Turner as a drunken tramp he turns into a star, William Powell as a homespun writer Shields gives the Hollywood treatment---inadvertantly causing the death of the writer's wife (a marvelous Gloria Grahame, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Walter Pidgeon as a big time producer who gives Shields his first big break. The film is told in flashbacks as a now destitute Shields starts contacting these people looking for support. He made some of them what they are now---but at a costly price to their souls. Film ends with the question "will they or won't they?" Douglas plays Shields as a charming jerk who'll stab you in the back in a heartbeat to get what he wants. Turner is good and has a great scene where she completely freaks out behind the wheel of her car after discovering what a lowlife Shields really is, nearly killing herself and God knows who else. And Grahame is delightful as Powell's Southern fried wife who perhaps is a bit too helpful and winds up a victim of Shield's plot to keep Powell under his thumb. Supposedly a who's who of real life Hollywood stories, the film is just plain enjoyable for the performances and looks great on DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: TURNER AND DOUGLAS
Review: As film actress Georgia Lorrison, Lana Turner gives one of her best performances and Kirk Douglas is great as the cad, Jonathan Shields. This film won an amazing total of 6 AA; only the odd-mouthed Gloria Grahame (in a frivolous performance) won for an acting role. The paradoxical, corrupt and colourful world of Hollywood is given pretty honest treatment here and it's a fascinating excursion into what made the film capital tick back in the early 50's. Lana Turner surprised many when she showed just how far she could stretch her acting ability when well-directed. Cynical and hard with elements still revelent today, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL gives us an insightful look into the lives of users and abusers and it's most interesting to watch, for those in the mood.
Rating:
Summary: Turner & Douglas are at their best, B&W Classic now on DVD!
Review: Based on Charles Schnee's the 1951 "Ladies Home Journal" short story "Tribute To A Bad Man". The movie title was changed to include MGM's Leading Blonde siren, Lana Turner.MGM provides us with the best ensemble cast in Hollywood; Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas - Oscar Nominee, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame - Oscar Winner, Best Supporting Actress, Gilbert Roland & Leo G. Carroll, under the brilliant direction of Vincent Minnelli. "The Bad (Kirk Douglas) And The Beautiful (Lana Turner)" winner of 4 Oscars in 1952. Best Supporting Actress - Gloria Grahame, Best Screenplay - Charles Schnee (Outstanding melodrama), Best Black & White Cinematography (Fantastic DVD transfer, clear & detailed) - Robert Surtee & Best Art Direction (the movie is primarily shot on Hollywood sets which are beautifully done). Summary: About a steamy story of a ruthless 18 year rise & fall of a tyranical & manipulative Hollywood movie Tycoon Jonathan Shields (Douglas - Oscar Nominee). Told in a "flashback" from multiple perspectives ( from the point of view of 3 friends seduced & betrayed by him. The director (Sullivan), the Actress (Turner) & the Pultizer Prize winning writer (Powell) & his star struck wife (Grahame - Oscar). How he back stabbed, used, lied & double crossed them on the way to the top. On his way down needing their help & how Hollywood classic successes, failures & pay backs evolve. Outstanding value, this 2 sided DVD Full Screen (before WideScreen)Black & White (Oscar Winner for Best Cinematography) presentation provides us with an OUTSTANDING DVD transfer of "The Bad And The Beautiful" (Side 1). All the many extras are on Side 2; A very informative chronological 90 minute Documentary / Biography "Lana Turner.... A Daughter's Memoir", Scoring Session Music Cues (nice addition), Theatrical Trailers & Production Notes. A very nice Hollywood package.
Rating:
Summary: Turner & Douglas are at their best, B&W Classic now on DVD!
Review: Based on Charles Schnee's the 1951 "Ladies Home Journal" short story "Tribute To A Bad Man". The movie title was changed to include MGM's Leading Blonde siren, Lana Turner. MGM provides us with the best ensemble cast in Hollywood; Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas - Oscar Nominee, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame - Oscar Winner, Best Supporting Actress, Gilbert Roland & Leo G. Carroll, under the brilliant direction of Vincent Minnelli. "The Bad (Kirk Douglas) And The Beautiful (Lana Turner)" winner of 4 Oscars in 1952. Best Supporting Actress - Gloria Grahame, Best Screenplay - Charles Schnee (Outstanding melodrama), Best Black & White Cinematography (Fantastic DVD transfer, clear & detailed) - Robert Surtee & Best Art Direction (the movie is primarily shot on Hollywood sets which are beautifully done). Summary: About a steamy story of a ruthless 18 year rise & fall of a tyranical & manipulative Hollywood movie Tycoon Jonathan Shields (Douglas - Oscar Nominee). Told in a "flashback" from multiple perspectives ( from the point of view of 3 friends seduced & betrayed by him. The director (Sullivan), the Actress (Turner) & the Pultizer Prize winning writer (Powell) & his star struck wife (Grahame - Oscar). How he back stabbed, used, lied & double crossed them on the way to the top. On his way down needing their help & how Hollywood classic successes, failures & pay backs evolve. Outstanding value, this 2 sided DVD Full Screen (before WideScreen)Black & White (Oscar Winner for Best Cinematography) presentation provides us with an OUTSTANDING DVD transfer of "The Bad And The Beautiful" (Side 1). All the many extras are on Side 2; A very informative chronological 90 minute Documentary / Biography "Lana Turner.... A Daughter's Memoir", Scoring Session Music Cues (nice addition), Theatrical Trailers & Production Notes. A very nice Hollywood package.
Rating:
Summary: Bad and the Beautiful
Review: I have loved this inside-the-industry flick for years, but just got the DVD and loved it all over again. As a movie about the movies, it is right up there with Sunset Blvd., The Player, Swimming with Sharks, Harlow, and The Oscar. Anyway, the story line is covered elsewhere, but I had a few comments on other aspects of the film, particularly on character. First--I agree that this film contains some of Douglas' and Turner's best work. I think the pivotal scene in the film, and its emotional core, is the scene following Gloria's premiere, when she comes to Shields' mansion, only to find he has dumped her for the slutty sexpot. (This actress, and not Grahme, should have gotten the Oscar). In dismissing Gloria Lorrison, Shields reveals his vulnerability, and that his love for Gloria has, in fact, been able to reach a deep level--and for that very reason, she must be jettisoned, and he must hurt her terribly to make her leave for good. He cannot allow anyone to be that close--I only wish we knew why! But he is not named "Shields" accidentally: he has armored his heart, and that is why he can be so ruthless. Anyway, Douglas is brilliant in this scene, his intensity is unmatched, and one can see and feel the emotional depths he reached on a personal level. Turner follows hard-upon with her own, super-intense loss of control while careening down a rain-drenched road. Some may see these scenes as soap opera histrionics, but to me, I felt that the actors were able to portray people just breaking apart from the inside, and in a very genuine way. I found Shields to be still sympathetic until the scene where Dick Powell finds out Shields sent his distracting wife on a fatal excursion with Gaucho (NOT to have an affair, in my opinion, just to get her out of the way). He tells Powell he is better off without his wife, he should be thankful she is dead so he can do his work without her to interrupt. In this scene, Shields proves disgustingly, irredeemably heartless, as he presumes everyone else should see love as a liability, just as he does. In the end, none of the characters has ANY reason or motivation to be the slightest bit interested in Shields' proposition, and I think the last shot where they huddle around the phone is just emotionally false. I think they ought to have just kept walking, and maybe we needed a shot of Shields' face registering the weight of his irredeemable actions. And why, pray tell, was Walter Pidgeon in the role of pimp for Shields? I think it would have been interesting to have Shields himself in this role, pitching the project, and saying, "You all owe it to me despite what I did to you". I think the LACK of Shields in this personal role hurts the film somewhat. No matter. This is still a great film, with a great script, and great performances. I wonder what fims/actors got the Oscars instead? Non Sans Droit!
Rating:
Summary: "I Like Being Cheap-Maybe Everybody Does!".
Review: I have loved this inside-the-industry flick for years, but just got the DVD and loved it all over again. As a movie about the movies, it is right up there with Sunset Blvd., The Player, Swimming with Sharks, Harlow, and The Oscar. Anyway, the story line is covered elsewhere, but I had a few comments on other aspects of the film, particularly on character. First--I agree that this film contains some of Douglas' and Turner's best work. I think the pivotal scene in the film, and its emotional core, is the scene following Gloria's premiere, when she comes to Shields' mansion, only to find he has dumped her for the slutty sexpot. (This actress, and not Grahme, should have gotten the Oscar). In dismissing Gloria Lorrison, Shields reveals his vulnerability, and that his love for Gloria has, in fact, been able to reach a deep level--and for that very reason, she must be jettisoned, and he must hurt her terribly to make her leave for good. He cannot allow anyone to be that close--I only wish we knew why! But he is not named "Shields" accidentally: he has armored his heart, and that is why he can be so ruthless. Anyway, Douglas is brilliant in this scene, his intensity is unmatched, and one can see and feel the emotional depths he reached on a personal level. Turner follows hard-upon with her own, super-intense loss of control while careening down a rain-drenched road. Some may see these scenes as soap opera histrionics, but to me, I felt that the actors were able to portray people just breaking apart from the inside, and in a very genuine way. I found Shields to be still sympathetic until the scene where Dick Powell finds out Shields sent his distracting wife on a fatal excursion with Gaucho (NOT to have an affair, in my opinion, just to get her out of the way). He tells Powell he is better off without his wife, he should be thankful she is dead so he can do his work without her to interrupt. In this scene, Shields proves disgustingly, irredeemably heartless, as he presumes everyone else should see love as a liability, just as he does. In the end, none of the characters has ANY reason or motivation to be the slightest bit interested in Shields' proposition, and I think the last shot where they huddle around the phone is just emotionally false. I think they ought to have just kept walking, and maybe we needed a shot of Shields' face registering the weight of his irredeemable actions. And why, pray tell, was Walter Pidgeon in the role of pimp for Shields? I think it would have been interesting to have Shields himself in this role, pitching the project, and saying, "You all owe it to me despite what I did to you". I think the LACK of Shields in this personal role hurts the film somewhat. No matter. This is still a great film, with a great script, and great performances. I wonder what fims/actors got the Oscars instead? Non Sans Droit!
Rating:
Summary: How it really works in Hollywood, when it works.
Review: I know now where Martin Scorsese originally got his passion for the film business. Had I seen the Bad and the Beautiful when I was in my teens, maybe.... I...., well, anyway. It's a wonderfully told (mostly in flashback) story of a driven young producer Jonathan Shields (Oscar nominated-Kirk Douglas) and his relationships on his way to the top with an actress (Lana Turner), a director (Barry Sullivan), and a writer (Dick Powell). Scorsese mentions this film more than once in his "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies", which I wholeheartedly recommend. Charles Schnee's screenplay won the Academy Award. Beautiful black and white photography by Bob Surtees, who also won the Oscar. A treasure to find in your local video store. An evening well spent at the movies.
Rating:
Summary: You Never Know Who You'll Need On Your Way Down
Review: Kirk Douglas gives another intense, memorable performance as a tough, manipulative Hollywood producer who uses a lot of people on his climb to the top, and even though he starts them on their way too, they are reluctant to help him when he needs them most. Barry Sullivan is the B-director that Douglas helps make a top flight director, Lana Turner is the alcholic actress that Douglas turns into a star, and Dick Powell is the reluctant writer that Douglas brings to Hollywood and makes rich and famous. However, each one bears scars from their experiences with the ruthless producer. The performances in the film are all excellent, with special praise going to Lana Turner, who really delivers an emotional, tough portrayal in a career hight-point. The insights into backstage Hollywood are also interesting in this tough drama that reminds us that we should be good to the people we meet going up the ladder, because we may need them when we are on our way down.
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