the big knife and a movie about the dark side of the hollywood motion picture industry and be ironically far more like a filmed play than a film itself . apart from a few very brief expository scene and all of the action take place in the living room of the film hero and play by jack palance . he a movie actor who want out of his contract with his studio because of the lack of redeem quality in the film they put out . his on again and off again wife ( ida lupino ) be also feed up with the studio and not to mention her husband philandering way . unfortunately for them both and the head of the studio ( rod steiger ) be a real bastard . he have blackmail material to force the increasingly tortured actor to sign a new contract . but it only a matter of time before he push the man too far . this film be not and i repeat not and a film noir . rather and it an exceptionally theatrical sit room melodrama . the plot proceeds at a snail pace and and be so intricate and confuse that it be in violent disharmony with the static setting and carefully contrive blocking of the actual scene . the acting be overwrought in the extreme and and veers sharply between out and out histrionics and soft and but no less unsubtle and soliloquy that be obviously mean to be poignant but come across a pretentious twaddle and especially in the hand of the woefully miscast palance . aldrich be obviously go all out for a stylized something here and but i doubt even he know what it be and and certainly the audience never do . i think the main lesson here be that film and play be very different medium . what might have work in a play do not come across a even remotely natural or plausible on film . the result . a big waste of time . there little to enjoy here .