The Bad and the Beautiful

Synopsis

Made two years after the blistering Sunset Boulevard, this film similarly puts Hollywood under the microscope and discovers a lot of unpleasant things crawling around. Kirk Douglas has a role to die for, and knows it – he pulls out all the stops playing the talented, mercurial and apparently utterly cold-blooded movie mogul Jonathan Shields. As the friends and lover he has used and abused gather to hear a plea from this on-the-skids former enfant terrible, we see how his rise became a fall. It’s as addictive as a soap opera but has a hard edge and brilliant wit. As irresistible as its protagonist.