The Bad and the Beautiful

Development

In 1937, John Houseman joined Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre as an actor. When Welles moved to Hollywood, Houseman collaborated on the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1942). When the United States joined World War II, Houseman spent most of his time supervising the Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcast in Europe. For the remainder of the decade, he directed Broadway plays and produced several Hollywood films, including The Blue Dahlia (1946), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), and They Live by Night (1948).^[6]

At RKO Radio Pictures, where he produced They Live by Night (1948), Houseman met Dore Schary, the studio's head of production.^[7] In May 1948, Howard Hughes acquired a controlling interest in RKO from Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation. From thereon, Schary clashed with Hughes's interference, and Schary resigned from RKO in July 1948.^[8][9][10] Schary next joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as their vice president in charge of production.^[9]

Meanwhile, Houseman's contract with RKO lapsed. While he next directed a Broadway revival of King Lear in 1950, ^[11] Schary, now MGM's head of production, signed Houseman to a five-year contract as a film producer.^[12] Houseman's first MGM production Holiday for Sinners (1952) was modestly-budgeted compared to other studio productions. When it was released in 1952, Holiday for Sinners received decent reviews from film critics but failed at the box office.^[11][13]

For his second project, Houseman came across a magazine short story "Memorial to a Bad Man" written by George Bradshaw and published in the February 1951 issue of Ladies' Home Journal.^[11] The story was expanded from Bradshaw's 1949 magazine story, "Of Good and Evil". Based on the life of Jed Harris, the story occurs after the death of an unscrupulous Broadway producer. The producer's attorney invites three of his former collaborators—a playwright, actor, and stage director—to the funeral, where each one reflects how they were seduced and then betrayed by him. Anticipating their hostile reactions, the dead producer pleads in his final will and testament for them to collaborate on a play in his memory.^[14][15]

Intrigued with the story, Houseman wanted to relocate the story's setting from Broadway to Hollywood as he was tired of theatrical stories with protagonists patterned on Jed Harris. He sent the story to Schary, who readily agreed to produce an adaptation.^[16] The screen rights to Bradshaw's 1950 story were purchased for $11,500 (equivalent to $139,705 in 2026).^[11] MGM had previously acquired the film rights to Bradshaw's "Of Good and Evil", with Don Hartman assigned as the producer. However, he left for Paramount Pictures and Houseman replaced him.^[15]

Schary hired Charles Schnee to write the screenplay based on Houseman's recommendation.^[17][18] Schnee created the character of Jonathan Shields.^[19] He and Houseman held story conferences where they decided to cut the flashbacks to three and spread out the story to mirror industry changes in Hollywood over the past decades. They also departed from the story, which had the flashbacks take place during a reading of the producer's will, in which he asks his former collaborators to reunite on one last production in his memory. Instead, they had an actress, film director, and screenwriter reunited by Shields's request that they return to work for him again.^[20]

As the script was being revised, Houseman and Schnee recognized the character Jonathan Shields' similarities with real-life film producer David O. Selznick. Houseman wrote in his memoir that he arranged a screening for Selznick's lawyer to determine whether the film contained any libelous material. Selznick's lawyer replied he did not.^[17] Schary wrote that Shields was a combination of "David O. Selznick and as yet unknown David Merrick".^[21] In his memoir, Vincente Minnelli stated Shields was based on "Selznick and others, the heroine would remind the audience of Diana Barrymore. The director of the cat people film and other small budget pictures would be patterned on Val Lewton."^[22]

Impressed with Vincente Minnelli's films such as Father of the Bride (1950) and An American in Paris (1951), Houseman wanted him to direct the film.^[18] Minnelli recalled at the time: "The studio wanted me to direct Lili but I didn't want to follow An American in Paris with another ballet film."^[23] Houseman invited Minnelli for a lunch meeting at the Romanoff's, where he handed Minnelli the first draft of the script, tentatively titled Tribute to a Bad Man. Minnelli read it and the next day, he agreed to direct.^[24][25]

Casting

Several of MGM's contract actors were considered for the roles in the film. For the role of Jonathan Shields, Robert Taylor and Clark Gable were suggested.^[25][26] Houseman felt Gable was too old for the role and sent a copy of the script to Kirk Douglas. According to Douglas, Gable turned down the role. He then read the script, found it "wonderful", and was cast in the part.^[27]

Houseman, Minnelli, and Schnee each wanted Lana Turner for the role of Georgia Lorrison.^[28] Minnelli reflected years later: "Lana liked the script too. Everyone at MGM always wanted to work with Lana. I had been told she wasn't a good actress but I discovered it wasn't true. I found she had great imagination."^[23] On January 28, 1952, the casting of Turner and Douglas was announced in the press. Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons published it was "certainly the most unexpected and hottest teaming of 1952 (so far)".^[28]

Barry Sullivan was originally cast as James Lee Bartlow, a novelist turned screenwriter, while Dick Powell was cast as Fred Amiel, the director. However, Powell suggested Minnelli to instead cast him as Bartlow, as he looked like a writer. Minnelli agreed, and he and Houseman reassigned Sullivan as Fred Amiel.^[22] Walter Pidgeon wanted the role of Harry Pebbel, the studio's B-movie producer. However, he told Houseman and Minnelli that his suave onscreen persona would be ill-suited for the role. One day, he walked into Minnelli's studio office wearing a crew cut wig and an ill-fitted suit to demonstrate how he would appear in the film. Minnelli felt convinced and was cast in the role.^[22]

Gilbert Roland was cast as Victor "Gaucho" Ribera while Gloria Grahame was selected for Rosemary Bartlow.^[18] Grahame was a close friend and neighbor of Houseman, as they previously met at RKO where she was married to Nicholas Ray.^[29]

Elaine Stewart was cast as Lila, Shields's mistress. She previously worked as a cover model, in which she won the title of "Miss See" for See Magazine. Hal Wallis placed her on contract with Paramount Pictures, where she played a nurse in Sailor Beware (1952), a comedy with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Dissatified with the role, Stewart was released from her contract and signed with MGM on the basis of a screen test for Warner Bros.^[30]

Filming

Principal photography began on April 9, 1952.^[31]

As the film was in production, MGM feared the title Tribute to a Bad Man would be mistaken for a Western. MGM's head of publicity Howard Dietz suggested The Bad and the Beautiful, which he owed to F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 novel The Beautiful and Damned.^[31] Schary and MGM's publicity department liked the title, though Houseman and Schnee did not. Houseman sent a memo stating he thought the title was "meaningless, pretentious, and vulgar".^[32] He begged Schary to reflect "a year from now" should the film be nominated or win an Academy Award that a "cheap, crummy title" will be read out during the ceremony and before a radio-listening audience. Houseman's memo was overruled, and after a few days, he became accustomed to the new title.^[32]

Filming was completed on June 4, 1952.^[33]

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $2,367,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,006,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $484,000.^[3]

Critical reaction

The performances of (top, L–R) Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, (bottom, L–R) Walter Pidgeon, Barry Sullivan, and Gloria Grahame in the film were widely praised by critics. Grahame won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.^[39]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote:

[S]omehow, for all this probing and all this intimate looking around amid the realistic paraphernalia and artificial clutter of Hollywood, there does not emerge a clear picture of exactly how movies are made. It is a crowded and colorful picture, but it is choppy, episodic and vague. And what is much more annoying, for all the carving and digging that are done in the producer's insides, it is still not discovered what makes this vicious fellow run. To be sure, Charles Schnee's script makes some effort to explain him as the cynical son of a pioneer movie producer who has died broke and hated in Hollywood. And Kirk Douglas plays the fellow with all that arrogance in the eyes and jaw that suggest a ruthless disposition covering up for a hurt and bitter soul. But this doesn't justify his meanness or his broad inconsistencies. The fellow is a picturesque composite of Hollywood rumor—a prototype of many legends. But that's all he is. He's a cliché. The same might be said of Lana Turner as the incredible girl who is raised from a drunken extra to staggering stardom by the willpower of this man. Frankly, she is no more convincing as the drunken extra than she is as the star. She is an actress playing an actress, and neither one is real. A howling act in a wildly racing auto—pure bunk—is the top of her speed."^[2]

Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "one of the three best movies about Hollywood, if not the best."^[1] William Brogdon of Variety praised the screenplay as "exceptionally well-written in dialog and situation", Minnelli's direction for making "almost every situation alive with background action and bits of business", and the cast who "each turns in a commanding performance, with [Dick] Powell having a slight edge because of the potent underlaying of his character."^[40]

Harrison's Reports wrote: "Thanks to the masterful direction, the fine screenplay, the exceptionally good dialogue and the excellent performances of everyone in the star-studded cast, The Bad and the Beautiful emerges as a first-rate adult drama, with a powerful dramatic impact and a quality that keeps one's eyes riveted to the screen."^[41]