Vincente Minnelli's virtuoso investigation of how Hollywood works, going behind the scenes and into the characters of a film star, a script writer, a director and a producer, with Walter Pidgeon as the ultimate executive producer making all the final decisions, is a fascinating web of psychology; and the most fascinating character is the villain, the producer Kirk Douglas. When you look deep into his demeanour and how he works, you really can't blame him. You understand why everyone hates him and wants nothing to do with him, but like his three major victims in the end they just can't keep themselves from nevertheless following him, lost for life in a permanent fascination of his possessed genius. Yes, he lets his best friend down, but so did almost everyone in Hollywood. He betrays Lana Turner after having saved her and made her a film star, the treason is atrocious, but he just couldn't help it. And his guilt in the loss of his script writer Dick Powell's wife is very arguable indeed. It was an unintentional accident, yes, he made Gaucho go away with her, he even tried to persuade Gaucho not to use that plane, and there is no tenable case. And the executive producer Walter Pidgeon is the one who never deserts him, always is ready to start again from the beginning and to try the impossible to raise new money for Kirk's new film against impossible odds - the end is the best, as no query is resolved, and you are left hanging in the air, with the one remaining thing, the fascination by the impossible and incurable genius.
It's a masterpiece of dissection of how Hollywood works, and it will leave you somewhat disillusioned - is Hollywood really just such an inhuman and monstrous soap bubble of only vainglorious vanity?
It's a masterpiece of dissection of how Hollywood works, and it will leave you somewhat disillusioned - is Hollywood really just such an inhuman and monstrous soap bubble of only vainglorious vanity?