The Big Knife

The first independent production by The Associates & Aldrich was a direct slap in the face of the studio system. Clifford Odets’ play about the dehumanisation of the film industry was inspired by his own experiences in the dream factory, but Aldrich’s aggressively theatrical film adaptation is so incisive that it makes the glamorous treatment of similar themes in earlier works such as SUNSET BOULEVARD look tame by comparison. Charlie Castle (Jack Palance), a talented actor, has become a disillusioned alcoholic. His submission to studio boss Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger, sporting white hair in a caricature of moguls such as Harry Cohn and Louis B. Mayer) and Hoff’s criminal henchman (Wendell Corey) threatens to drive his wife (Ida Lupino) away. Aldrich regular Wesley Addy offers futile advice: “Struggle, you may still win a blessing!” A hellish vision of Hollywood as the crossroads of abhorrent capitalism and corrupted art. (C.H.)

Courtesy of the George Eastman Museum.