The Big Knife

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After 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful skewered Hollywood with a scathing attempt at self-analysis, The Big Knife (1955) finished the job of exposing the slimy underbelly of the studio system. This high-gloss noir, cynical to the bone and altogether hysterical in its potboiler theatrics, is a deliriously entertaining mid-'50s melodrama, adapted from the play by Clifford Odets (who brought a similar brand of vitriol to Sweet Smell of Success) and starring Jack Palance in a role that transcended his trademark villainy. Palance is quite effective as rising star Charlie Castle, whose continued ascension in Hollywood depends on his willingness to renew a contract with studio bully Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger), who treats Charlie like an indentured servant and, even worse, has plenty of dirt to hold against Charlie if he doesn't cooperate.

Trapped between stardom and a desperate desire to reconcile with his neglected wife (Ida Lupino), Charlie's facing a no-win scenario, haunted by the indiscretions of his past. Palance's overwrought performance is perfectly keyed to director Robert Aldrich's typically histrionic approach; he's eclipsed only by Steiger, whose Method madness has rarely been as outrageous as this (his character was partially based on studio honcho Jack Warner). Set primarily in the well-appointed den of Charlie's Bel-Air manse, The Big Knife is stagy but stylish, with Charlie's home taking on the appearance of a gilded cage as his predicament intensifies. Add a stellar supporting cast, and you've got film noir at its finest--dark souls baking in the California sun. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Academy Award® winners* Jack Palance, Rod Steiger and Shelley Winters deliver knockout performances in this vicious "poison-pen letter to the movie business" (American Cinematheque)that's an extreme close-up of greed, lust and murder! Hollywood superstar Charlie Castle (Palance) has it all except a way out. When he tries to leave show business, his tyrannical studio boss Stanley Hoff (Steiger) blackmails him with a lethal, covered-up secret that could land him in jail. A loose-lipped starlet (Winters) also knows too much, and when she starts talking, Hoff plans murder. Now Charlie is more cornered than everon the brink of losing his wealth, his power and his soul. *Palance: Supporting Actor, City Slickers (1991); Steiger: Actor, In the Heat of the Night (1967); Winters: Supporting Actress, A Patch of Blue (1965), Supporting Actress, The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

Customer Reviews:

Between a Rock and a Hard Place.......2007-07-10

Who ever thought that Jack Palance could ever deliver an emotionally wrought performance at this stage in his career? He does just that. He gives such a performance that it is just heartbreaking to watch him. Jack Palance had more range than he was ever given credit for having. This is a brutally well scripted realistic film directed by Robert Aldrich. Wendell Corey also gives a rationally based, cold and detached, but curiously humane performance driven by the system and in too deep for his own good but his conscience reminds him that he really should know better. Perhaps all the characters actually do know better and know that there truly is no way out.

The Realist, the Philistine and the Idealist....You figure it out........2007-06-14

There is very much room for debate on The Big Knife. The casting of Palance and Steiger, good 'ol whinny Winters, the stage-related lack of locales, etc., etc. Each of these can be parsed to illuminate why the film works or doesn't. In a way that's a sign of a good film, one that has made bold choices, and risks it's essential qualities.
I liked it. The thing that stood out for me though, was the seeming-multiple-endings. About three times I felt an ending, only to have another character enter, another scene. This may be Odets the writer, or Aldrich the director.
In any case I loved Palance. I am a fan of his, and in a lead, a somewhat straight lead, his casting is inspired. I felt he was emotionally resonant, quickly rising and falling with the clipped Odets' poetics. I watched it last night on TCM, and Robert Osborne remarked in the opening that this was a film about "weird people, Hollywood types" (paraphrase). I think that poorly sells the story, limiting it's scope and personality. Palance as Charlie Castle is a wreck because of his life in Hollywood, sure, but he isn't weird for it. His close relationships with his trainer/masseur and his publicist, among others, highlights his isolation and need for loving contact. Which makes Ida Lupino, as his possibly-leaving wife Marion, and her dilemma such a good parallel to Charlie's wanting to leave Hollywood.
And Rod Steiger....Over the top? Yes. But it a beautiful thing to watch. I love his commanding physical presence, his melodramatic crying, his hand-wringing. It may be scene-chewing and distracting to some, but again, it works within the story and the character. His psychological make up is so apparent, especially when he fears Castle will strike him, how he crosses his arms and tucks in.
Ida Lupino, who looks like she could be Stockard Channing's mother, was strong and poised despite her rancorous life, and I appreciated her for it. Her character was winning because of the strength she debated having to exert. Again, a Hollywood consequence.
Character actors, one and all, Smiley, Connie, Shelley Winter's wonkie Dixie, Hank (who could be Grey Davis' father), Nat (his slapping of Stanley Hoff's glass was awesome) , they all embody the inherent lack of stability in Hollywood.
The message is clear, and the execution (pardon the pun), was dramatic and interesting.

Stagy and poorly cast.......2007-06-13

I'm a great admirer of Clifford Odets, and I suspect "The Big Knife" worked very well on stage. But as a movie, no way. A film about Hollywood that confines itself to conversations in people's living rooms is not using the medium effectively. I'll concede that some of those conversations are well-written, and the supporting cast (notably Ida Lupino and Wendell Corey)mostly excellent. But beyond the staginess, the movie suffers from two monumentally bad casting choices. Jack Palance is nowhere near credible as a romantic-type Hollywood leading man; he's not comfortable even walking around (he shambles in an odd way). Palance is a character actor who played bad-guy parts memorably, but asking him to deliver ripe, soul-searching, theatrical monologues about integrity just doesn't work. And then there's Rod Steiger as the nasty, amoral studio chief, who is so over the top, it's hard to describe. Talk about scenery-chewing -- Steiger looks like he might literally rip up parts of the set and wolf them down at any moment. It's such a ludicrous performance as to be almost weirdly watchable, but sinks any chance the movie had at dramatic credibility. I can't understand why director Robert Aldrich allowed a non-A list actor (Steiger was just getting started on his great career at this point)to sabotage his film so thoroughly.

The Old Movies.......2006-03-14

For anyone who likes old movies, made in the early 50's etc this is for you. Jack Palance is fabulous along with the other stars, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters. The story is believable and although it is in black and white it lacks for nothing. I was not dissappointed.

Not a Very Cinematic Adaptation. Histrionic but Powerful Performances........2005-10-03

"The Big Knife" is based on the Clifford Odets play of the same name, adapted for the screen by James Poe and directed by Robert Aldrich. The film is not very cinematic. It is essentially a play that has been filmed. It takes place almost exclusively on one set -a Bel Air living room, the dialogue is mannered, and the performances are often histrionic. This is Clifford Odets, and it's melodrama. The dialogue tends to purple but is certainly intriguing. It's not a natural adaptation of Odets, like 1952's "Clash By Night", which was transformed into a real work of cinema by director Fritz Lang. The actors sometimes deliver Odets' heavy dialogue naturally and casually; other times they go over the top. Moments of high drama are punctuated by drum rolls. Sometimes it seems that director Robert Aldrich should have interpreted the play more cinematically or more realistically for the silver screen, but I suppose that is a matter of taste. "The Big Knife" succeeds on the strength of its performances, which are almost universally excellent.

"Charlie Castle is a man who sold out his dreams, but he can't forget them." Charlie (Jack Palance) is a movie star who made it big under contract to Hoff Federated studios, owned by unscrupulous megalomaniac Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger). Charlie's wife Marion (Ida Lupino) has threatened to leave him should he renew his contract with Hoff. She can't stand the way that inane movies and virtual imprisonment have turned her once-idealistic husband into a spiritless toady. But Charlie isn't free to do as he pleases, because Hoff holds incriminating information over him. Charlie was in a drunken car accident, for which a friend and studio employee took the blame. And the only other witness to the accident, aspiring young actress Dixie Evans (Shelley Winters), has developed the habit of shooting her mouth off about it.

Most of "The Big Knife" is conversation, so we get to know these characters well. Jack Palance gives a powerhouse performance and is usually able to make the overwrought dialogue believable. Ida Lupino is striking as his wife as well. The tyrannical Stanley Hoff is forceful but over-the-top. He's so thoroughly evil and grand in his speech that he isn't very credible. He's played as if he were on stage, which I don't think was wise. That doesn't go unnoticed by the writers or characters, though. Charlie asks Stanley point blank if he's ever been told that "the embroidery of your speech was completely out of proportion to anything you had to say!?" That line made me laugh. Once you get past the histrionics, "The Big Knife" is a well-articulated, if theatrical, story of an idealist -Charlie, a man who sold out and never looked back -Hoff's assistant Smiley Coy, played perfectly by Wendell Corey, and a person who never met an ideal -Stanley Hoff. We get a fun, cynical take on the players of Hollywood's golden era as well.

The DVD (MGM 2002): This print of the film has not been restored. Most of the flaws are minor scratches, but the picture flickers briefly and shows a big black spot about 1 hour and 23 minutes into the film. The only bonus feature is a theatrical trailer (2 ½ minutes). Subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish.

Caping and Field Dressing Big Game/Scoring North America's Big Game Species

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Manufacturer: Stoney-Wolf Prod.
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ASIN: B0001I2C70
Release Date: 2004-02-09

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Big Bulls Can Come Easy/Archery Elk the Dream Hunt

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Big Bulls Can Come Easy/Archery Elk the Dream Hunt
Starring: Big Bulls Can Come Easy , and Archery Elk-Dream Hunt
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ASIN: B0001JXPAM
Release Date: 2004-02-09

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Zimbabwe Elephant Safari/The Thrill of the Hunt: Big Game

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Zimbabwe Elephant Safari/The Thrill of the Hunt: Big Game
Starring: Zimbabwe Elephant Safari , and Thrill of the Hunt-Big Ga
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ASIN: B0001JXP1Q
Release Date: 2004-02-09

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Zimbabwe Elephant Safari: Join Buck McNeely on one of the most exciting African Safaris ever caught on camera. Hunts showcased include Steenbok, Duiker, Kudu, Nyala, Impala.The men then hunt the dangerous Cape Buffalo and finish the safari taking a Bull Elephant at 30 yards. Utilization of the meat plus important game conservation issues are featured in this world class video safari: The Thrill of the Hunt: Big Game: This compilation of Greatest Hunts explores the wonder and excitement of man's most basic and noble instinct: "To Hunt". Buck teaches his sons Max and Rex about deer hunting and then showcases some of his favorite BIG GAME HUNTS. Deer hunts in Texas, Missouri and Georgia are featured as well as a Colorado Elk hunt with Daryl Lamonica (NBA QB), Alaska Moose hunting, exotics in Texas with Frank Stallone (film and recording artist) and Reggie Theus (NBA Star) a trip to Iceland with Johnny Unser (Indy Racer) to hunt reindeer followed by bear hunts in Alberta, Canada and Siberia, Russia. Also featured is a journey to hunt New Zealand with General Chuck Yeager: Approximate length: 127 minutes.

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Where Big Bucks Go When the Heats On
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ASIN: B0001JXP0M
Release Date: 2004-02-09

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Bad Medicine for Big Bucks/Whitetail Encounters

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A Different Breed/Solving the Big Buck Riddle

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Release Date: 2004-02-09

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