The Bad and the Beautiful; Designing Woman

Although best known for his hit musicals (Meet Me in St. Louis, A Star is Born, Gigi, etc.), Vincente Minnelli was equally adept at comedies and dramas, as evidenced in these two new-to-DVD classics. Winner of five Oscars, 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful remains one of the best movies made about the movies in the last half century. Oscar-nominated Kirk Douglas stars as Jonathan Shields, a manipulative son-of-a-(reviled)-director (Shields hires "extras" to attend his pop's funeral), whose ambitious Hollywood ladder-climbing relies on the time-honored method of ruthlessly using and discarding people. Told in flashbacks, three of the key victims (Barry Sullivan, Lana Turner--whose memorably sexy query "read any good books lately?" should resonate with librarians--and Dick Powell) recall their career-building if otherwise unsavory experiences with Shields, while listening to a pitch for his latest project. The DVD also includes the informative 86-minute Turner Classic Movies documentary, Lana Turner…A Daughter's Memoir, narrated by Robert Wagner, and featuring Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane. Discovered in an ice cream parlor, 16-year-old Turner's famous response to being asked whether she'd like to be in movies was: "I'll have to ask my mother." Highly recommended. Starring Gregory Peck (in a rare comic role) and Lauren Bacall, Minnelli's 1957 Designing Woman is a delightful fish-out-of-water romantic comedy, with Peck as sportswriter Mike Hagen, who hooks up with (in a whirlwind-romance-marriage) the enchanting Marilla (Bacall), only to discover that she really is a "designing woman": a high society Manhattan in-demand fashion designer, whose artsy-fartsy soirees tend to clash with Mike's boys-night-out poker parties. While Mike's cover-up of his earlier fling with a leggy hoofer (Dolores Gray) and his ongoing (and dangerous) in-print exposé of a mob lowlife for putting in the fix on various sporting events drive the amiable plot, the real treats here are Peck and Bacall's winsomely funny performances, coupled with the gorgeous color costumes and set designs. The DVD also includes an odd but interesting short interview (the interviewer's questions have been lost) with costume designer Helen Rose. Definitely recommended. (R. Pitman) [Blu-ray Review—Dec. 17, 2019—Warner, 118 min., not rated, Blu-ray: $21.99—Making its debut on Blu-ray, 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack. Extras include the feature-length Turner Classic Movies-produced documentary 'Lana Turner: A Daughter’s Memoir' on the star (87 min.), and 'Scoring Session Music Cues' (26 min.). Bottom line: an excellent extras package for this Oscar-winning classic.]