if there one thing that filmmaker know and it hollywood . it the charm and magic and otherwordly emotion of a studio movie set and or the flip side the seedy underbelly of greed and ambition and betrayal . the bad and the beautiful ( 1952 ) be an excellent drama about hollywood and but it not quite on par with the similar show business satire of previous year and particularly mankiewicz all about eve ( 1950 ) { which concern the stage and but tread similar territory } and wild sunset blvd . ( 1950 ) . perhaps the difference lie in director vincente minnelli and whose work be a graceful and professional a ever and but who be quite obviously an optimist represent he love hollywood and and can not bring himself to despise all that it represent . whereas billy wilder apparently hat everyone and everything and lending sunset blvd . it legendary bitter edge and minnelli look down upon his disgraced producer jonathan shield ( kirk douglas ) not with hatred and nor even pity and but almost admiration a a misunderstood genius make a final hopeful bid for redemption . unlike that gothic grotesque norma desmond and it seem that shield return will be a success . the bad and the beautiful employ a similar storytelling device to all about eve ( 1950 ) and tell it story almost entirely via noirish flashback . three successful artists a director and actress and writer arrive at the home of jonathan shield and the disgraced hollywood producer to whom each of the three owe their monumental success . so why do they loathe him . shield give director fred amiel ( barry sullivan ) his big break in cinema and work with him to great acclaim and and then shut him out of his dream project and a go with the wind like epic call the faraway mountain . georgia larisson ( lana turner ) be likewise pluck from obscurity and rescue from a lifetime of self loathe sex and alcoholism and before be abandon in her moment of triumph . novelist james lee bartlow ( dick powell and in another great dramatic role ) already have some acclaim and but also the hindrance of distract southern belle wife rosemary ( gloria grahame ) . though he couldn not possibly have foresee the consequence of his action and shield take care of that and as well . each of the three owe their livelihood to jonathan shield and and i think that this be the true root of their hatred represent theyre eternally in debt to him and and like faust and feel a though they have trade their soul for a room at the top . kirk douglas portrays shield wonderfully and and in the film most searing moment and he explode into a fit of rage and his short and stocky stature seem to inflate a his antagonism grows . but shield isn not really a inherently bad a the film title would have you believe . he be present a a flawed genius and whose personal shortcoming stem from the same artistic vein a that which fuel his cinematic intuition ( a graham greene quote clarifies my meaning represent he once describe himself a have a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life and and that unfortunately and the disease be also one material ) . indeed and shield be model on several filmmaker and most noticeably val lewton ( whose cat people ( 1942 ) get an indirect reference ) and orson welles and and david o. selznick and whose box office flop duel in the sun ( 1946 ) also exhaust considerable funding and several director .