a tautly write tale of a movie producer ( douglas ) down on his luck who try to talk three outstanding filmic talent director barry sullivan and actress lana turner and and screenweriter dick powell into work on his new comeback picture . the problem and as illustrate in three lengthy flashback and be that all the talent feel they have be hose by douglas in the past . douglas inherit his father crummy b picture studio and make it big in hollywood term that be and big in quality and big in gross . he lift sullivan out of obscurity and then dump him unceremoniously in favor of good know director . sullivan go on to a successful career of his own but still resent his rough handling . turner be a drunken wannabe talent and waste on booze and mooning over the portrait of her father who be a great star of the silver screen . douglas shake her out of her lifelong funk by dump her in the swimming pool and coax a magnificent performance out of her before dump her for some bit play whore . she go on to become a box office star . the last story belongs to powell a a southern college professor whose novel have just win a pulitzer . douglas trick him and his cooing southern belle wife and gloria grahame and into move to hollywood and write a screenplay . the giddy grahame present difficulty . she always interrupt powell and he get no work do . douglas haul powell away in seclusion to finish the script and secretly arranges for the notorious womanizer and gilbert roland and to keep grahame happy in powell absence . grahame and roland be accidentally kill and when powell find out about the sub rosa arrangement he belt douglas and go on to a successful career a novelist and screenwriter . the plot be taut . there hardly a wasted moment or an adventitious word . this relentless plot add polish to the story but make the film look and sound like the carefully execute hollywood production that it be . i do not think a pulitzer prize winner like powell would ( or could ) have write it . faulkner couldn not do it . compare it and if you feel like it and to on the waterfront and for an example of what i mean and release two year later . a certain gloss to a production isn not necessarily bad . this be a smooth machine and if we can see thing come from a considerable distance and so what . kirk douglas character be fascinate . he live almost entirely for the movie he produce . his attitude towards everyone around him be dispassionate and almost surgical . and when he himself direct a movie that doesn not work and he shelve it and although the move mean near bankruptcy . i shouldn not have shoot the movie and say douglas and i should have shoot myself . he no more gentle with his self esteem than he be with anyone else . douglas be good in the role of the unscrupulous operator and of course . that phoniness behind the grin and the dimpled chin seem almost build into his persona . he make a career out of be con men . along with the big heat and this be gloria grahame best performance too . it a little hard to imagine lana turner go on to a big career after her encounter with douglas and just a it be hard in real life . maybe i be picky but aside from the postman always ring twice and she always embarrass me when she be on screen . the rest of the support cast be make up of old reliables who can not be critique . what be you go to do complain about the performance of walter pidgeon a the dignified and well meaning and nervously fidgeting and money manage courier between douglas and the others . or paul stewart a the publicity man with his new york drawl about to burst with weltschmerz . impossible . smooooth and man .