Really Surprised!

Memorable, crazy movie

As Good As It Gets

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

"How dare you come in here and throw this mess of naked pigeons in my face!" Hollywood actor Charles Castle (Jack Palance) is pressured by his studio boss (Rod Steiger) into a criminal cover-up to protect his valuable career.This film began its life as a Clifford Odets play starring John Garfield. As is not uncommon, it was expected that Garfield would play the same role in the film. Garfield, however passed away in 1952 at the age of 39. This opened the door for Jack Palance. While even the director (Robert Aldrich) did not think Palance had the looks to be leading man material, he pulls it off and of course went on to be a bigger name than Garfield was (with all due respect).The script comes from writer James Poe early on in his career, before his Oscar-winning script for "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956) or his marriage to the iconic Barbara Steele. When writing "Big Knife", both Poe and Aldrich (rightly) saw Odets as a "giant" and did not change more than they had to. Aldrich, later in life, regretted their failure to really make it their own.The plot provides the audience with a few avenues earlier on, making us think the real struggle is whether or not Castle will sign a 7-year contract that gives him big money but would stifle his potential. (The contract is for 14 years in the play, though I find 7 more realistic.)High praise comes from Jeff Stafford who writes, "The use of long takes by cinematographer Ernest Laszlo adds greatly to the film's claustrophobic tension and the mingling of fictitious names with real ones (Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, William Wyler and others) throughout the dialogue gives The Big Knife a candid, almost documentary-like quality at times." Dan Stumpf was less impressed, noting, "And then there's the pace — or rather there isn't. Knife is the kind of classic tragedy that needs fatalistic momentum; we should see Charley Castle's destiny come careening at him in the course of a single day, like Oedipus. Instead, director Aldrich and adapter James Poe open Odets' play out and let it meander around, a fatal mistake with material like this." One suspects that this is just part of adapting a play, that inevitably we are let with limited action and pace, unless some major changes are made (not many plays have car chases). Also, as "Knife" came out the same year as Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly", it cannot help but be compared unfavorably.Oddly enough, Robert Aldrich's career hit the fan in 1957 because of "The Big Knife", when he was fired from a Columbia movie called "The Garment Jungle" (1957). Columbia head Harry Cohn realized halfway through filming that the director he hired was the perpetrator of "The Big Knife", which Cohn erroneously believed was an attack on him. Unofficially blackballed, Aldrich went to Europe to direct the Hammer film "Ten Seconds" to Hell (1959, again with Palance), and "Sodom and Gomorrah" (1962), and to blacklist-friendly Kirk Douglas for "The Last Sunset" (1961). The Blu-ray has a brand-new 2K restoration from original film elements produced by Arrow Films exclusively for their release. We also get new audio commentary by film critics Glenn Kenny and Nick Pinkerton of Film Comment. The most interesting addition is "Bass on Titles". Saul Bass, responsible for "The Big Knife" credit sequence, discusses some of his classic work from "Psycho" to "Man With the Golden Arm" to "Seconds" and beyond, in a self-directed 33-minute documentary from 1977. While only tangentially related to the film, it has real value in itself that film buffs will appreciate.

Overly written, overly acted and without conviction, this movie is a sad version of an Odetts play. In todays world of fine actors, it is hard for the 50's acting technique to compete, but the writing in this screen play is so over the top, and without merit, that it is comedic in spots. Not comedic enough to bring a good laugh, but comedic enough to bring a yawn. Wendell Corey gives the most believable performance while Jack Palance lurches to and fro, grabbing any prop in sight to fulfill his drama coach's instructions to "use objects on the set", a common early Method trick. But no trick helps Palance when he is playing "serious". His later years reveal a very funny dude on screen and it is too bad he didn't discover that early on. Steiger and Winters play the same old characters that have served them well forever and ever, and ever... Ida Lupino is adequate but hardly outstanding in this mess. So all in all, it is a 50's movie. Enougn said.

Bel Air. The well-manicured area of LA where the successful actors, producers and directors in Hollywood live. So says the opening voice- over.Jack Palance, not the obvious choice for a leading man (& director Robert Aldrich's lame excuse for the film's box office failure) has never been better, nor has he had such a meaty role. His portrayal of pent-up anger and frustration is powerful yet still believable.He's the washed up star who's unravelling at the seams, wrestling with a dark secret and Rod Steiger, complete with blonde hairdo as his studio manager who is out to keep a lid on bad publicity at all costs. He will stop at nothing at getting a new contract signed.Ida Lupino is also extremely fine as Charles Castle's (Palance) wife. Their marriage is on the rocks and she pleads that Charles takes the rest that he desperately needs and to not sign. She won't go back to him otherwise. There's good support from tease Shelley Winters and as Charles' agent, Everett Sloane plus Wendell Corey as a ruthless producer.Much of the action takes place in the Castle's vast living room, nodding to the theatrics of the original play by Clifford Odets.This is a slow-burning, quite talky, intelligent character-led and well scripted study of Hollywood's mechanics - its layers of people. Not as flashy or melodramatic as some and certainly not as well known, but still directed with surety and skill. Today's viewer will have to adjust to the pace and style but that's easy and the rewards to those attuned can be high.There's enough depth to the material for a second viewing, which helps bring out the characters even more vividly.

A Hollywood movie star has a couple of angst-ridden days as he tries to get out of the business. The premise is a little hard to swallow - that it's hell being a movie star - and the execution is a failure on many levels. Based on a play by Odets, the characters don't stop talking for a minute. Aldrich does nothing to eliminate the stagy feel. Pretty much all the action takes place in a living room. The cast is impressive, but they did not get the memo that this is the film version, not the stage one. Palance and Lupino overact, but they are models of restraint compared to Steiger, who is completely over-the-top as a tough studio boss. The score is atrocious.