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The Big Knife (1955)
Director: Robert Aldrich
Writers: James Poe (screenplay), Clifford Odets (stage play)
Cast: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Stieger, Wendell Corey, Shelley Winters, Everett Sloane
Genre: Drama, Film-Noir
Synopsis (spoiler free): Hollywood movie star Charles Castle (Jack Palance) has some deep troubles! His wife (Ida Lupino) is divorcing him. The head of the studio (Rod Steiger) is blackmailing him into signing a 7 year movie contract. His best friend's wife (Jean Hagen) has the hots for him...So does a no-talent struggling actress (Shelley Winters) who happens to be shooting off her mouth around town about the actors dark past. All of this comes to head over a course of 48 hours.
My thoughts: Damn! this was one intensely emotional film that really digs into the seedy side of Hollywood and the dark secrets that tinsel town hides. I knew this was going to be down and dirty when we first meet the cut-throat gossip columnist Patty Benedict (Ilka Chase), based on real life Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who made and broke many a career by a stroke of her pen.
Jack Palance as a handsome leading man? Yeah it works, he's surprisingly effective as a movie star with a soft artist side who's sold out his artistry to make money for the studio. And he makes a lot of money and that's why the conniving & manipulative studio head Stanley Shriner Hoff pulls out all the stops to break the will of the actor. Rod Steiger, plays his role to utter perfection and is based on several real life studio heads, including Harry Cohn and Louie B Mayer.
This was Shelley Winter's first film and one that would type cast her in future movies.
Based on a stage play, this is wordy and the monologues give flesh to the motives of the characters much in the same way as was done in Twelve Angry Men. Fans of that movie should find a keen interest in The Big Knife, so should fans of The Bad and the Beautiful find something to like here.
The Big Knife (1955)
Writers: James Poe (screenplay), Clifford Odets (stage play)
Cast: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Stieger, Wendell Corey, Shelley Winters, Everett Sloane
Genre: Drama, Film-Noir
Synopsis (spoiler free): Hollywood movie star Charles Castle (Jack Palance) has some deep troubles! His wife (Ida Lupino) is divorcing him. The head of the studio (Rod Steiger) is blackmailing him into signing a 7 year movie contract. His best friend's wife (Jean Hagen) has the hots for him...So does a no-talent struggling actress (Shelley Winters) who happens to be shooting off her mouth around town about the actors dark past. All of this comes to head over a course of 48 hours.
My thoughts: Damn! this was one intensely emotional film that really digs into the seedy side of Hollywood and the dark secrets that tinsel town hides. I knew this was going to be down and dirty when we first meet the cut-throat gossip columnist Patty Benedict (Ilka Chase), based on real life Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who made and broke many a career by a stroke of her pen.
Jack Palance as a handsome leading man? Yeah it works, he's surprisingly effective as a movie star with a soft artist side who's sold out his artistry to make money for the studio. And he makes a lot of money and that's why the conniving & manipulative studio head Stanley Shriner Hoff pulls out all the stops to break the will of the actor. Rod Steiger, plays his role to utter perfection and is based on several real life studio heads, including Harry Cohn and Louie B Mayer.
This was Shelley Winter's first film and one that would type cast her in future movies.
Based on a stage play, this is wordy and the monologues give flesh to the motives of the characters much in the same way as was done in Twelve Angry Men. Fans of that movie should find a keen interest in The Big Knife, so should fans of The Bad and the Beautiful find something to like here.