The Big Knife

This big screen adaptation of Clifford Odets's titular 1949 play serves up a savage indictment of Hollywood as a soulless business that grinds up talented artists, which was pretty daring for 1955. Jack Palance stars as Charles Castle, once the talented and politically-active stage actor Charlie Cass, and now a movie star who sold out to the easy lifestyle of wealth and fame. His life of philandering and reckless partying cost him his marriage and his independence, and the only way to win back his wife (Ida Lupino) is to stand up to the icy studio boss (Rod Steiger) who is blackmailing him into signing a seven-year contract. Odets hated Hollywood and isn't at all subtle in his critique of the business or the culture. He draws details from Hollywood gossip about crimes and scandals and isn't coy about presenting the culture as libertine and excessive, full of easy sex and hard drinking. The Big Knife looks like a filmed play, most of it set in the living room of Charlie's Bel Air mansion, and director Robert Aldrich uses moving cameras and dramatic images to give the film energy. Costarring Wendell Corey, Everett Sloane, and Shelley Winters, this is a solid tragedy set in the vicious milieu of Hollywood, where money, sex, and blackmail are used to control stars. Presented in a newly restored edition, extras include audio commentary by film critics Glenn Kenny and Nick Pinkerton, a 1972 documentary on Saul Bass (who created the opening credits), and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)