The Bad and The Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952): U.S.A.

Reviewed by Larry Gleeson during TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), directed by Vincente Minelli and music by David Raskin, tells the story of an ambitious producer, Jonathan Shields, portrayed by Kirk Douglas. Minelli utilizes flashbacks with voice over narration from the individuals who had worked with Shields; writer James Lee Bartlow, portrayed by Dick Powell, a star Georgia Lorrison, portrayed by Hollywood starlet, Lana Turner, and a director Fred Amiel, portrayed by Barry Sullivan.

Interestingly, The Bad and The Beautiful seems to loosely imitate Akira Kurasowa’s Rashomon, winner of the 1951 Golden Lion, the top prize at the oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The film world was awestruck at the time by Kurasowa’s work and style. Furthermore, the use of the voice-over-narration, especially in the first act of The Bad and The Beautiful, Minelli employs the technique in a fashion closely resembling Billy Wilder’s use in Double Indemnity.

While The Bad and The Beautiful is typically regarded as a drama, I argue it is on the cusp of being a melodrama with the stereotypical

Posted at 12pm on 02/06/25 | no comments | Filed Under: Films read on

One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932): U.S.A.

Reviewed by Larry Gleeson during TCM 31 Days of Oscar.

February 5th, 2025, The annual TCM 31 Days of Oscar is featuring notable films in a category, Best Original Story, that fell by the wayside in 1956. Best Original Story is often correlated with a film’s treatment. Today the Academy of Motion Pictures bestows Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Out of the seven films screening today ; The Doorway to Hell (1930), One Way Passage (1932), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Action in the North Atlantic (1943), The Stratton Story (1949), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), and The Brave One (1956), I selected  One Way Passage (1932), a Pre-Code film based on the story by Robert Lord.

One Way Passage is a Warner Brothers Production, directed by Tay Garnett, that tells the doomed story of a dying heiress, and a charming and sophisticated criminal who meet and fall in love on an ocean voyage to San Francisco without knowing each other’s secret. William Powell (The Thin Man (1935), My Man Godfrey (1937), portrays the condemned criminal, Dan Hardesty, and Kay Francis (Passion Flower

Posted at 4pm on 02/05/25 | no comments | Filed Under: Films read on

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About

Film Review Club: Reviews of current film releases, streaming films, and revivals by student members of the SBCC Film Review Club.

Film Festival Course: FS108: Film Festival Studies: Santa Barbara International Film Festival and AFI Fest: Hollywood (2 or 1.5 units). Field course at film festivals to study U.S. and international fiction, experimental and documentary films.

Contact: Prof. Nico Maestu ([email protected])

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