David Cote, time out new york. Media in category "The Big Knife (play)" The following 156 files are in this category, out of 156 total. Are we making more or better pictures without that central control? Not as flashy or melodramatic as some and certainly not as well known, but still directed with surety and skill. Thomas Robbin. I'm afraid neither Jim Poe nor I were tough enough in editing some of Odets' phrases as we should have been."[7]. Meanwhile, Smiley, who has been attending a party at one of Castle's neighbors, drops in to tell the actor that Dixie Evans, a struggling starlet who happens to have been in the car with Castle the night of the accident, is threatening to reveal what she knows about the crash. The Big Knife But when everybody worked under those guys, they hated them. Having had Hank take her back to Castle, Marion arrives while Dixie is there. First produced with John Garfield in the central role and Lee Strasberg directing, and later made into a movie with Jack Palance, “The Big Knife” works over … ' The Big Knife' Aimed At Screen -- AddendaBy A. H. WEILER. When he made the film many old time tycoons were still in power. She wants to damage Hoff, not Castle. The play The Big Knife written by Clifford Odets and directed by Robert Aldrich is mainly revolved around the character Charlie Castle. A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit". Action, Certificate: Passed He wrote: Actually, it looks as though The Big Knife originally was written and aimed as an angry, vituperative incident of the personal and professional morals of Hollywood. The well-manicured area of LA where the successful actors, producers and directors in Hollywood live. She has had enough of his drunken womanizing and of the fact that he has relinquished his ideals for lower Hollywood expectations. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, and Everett Sloane. They picture a group of sordid people jawing at one another violently. Silver, Alain. Bel Air. Directed by Lee Strasberg, who had worked with Odets at the Group Theatre, and starring fellow Group Theatre alumnus John Garfield. Smiley suggests Castle invite her over, to talk and see if he can persuade her to keep quiet. The best extra is by a full commentary by critics and film writers Glenn Kenny and Nick Pinkerton, who cover the film, its actors, Aldrich and the major stories associated with the film. Was this review helpful to you? The Big Knife is a 1955 film noir directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. In this screen adaptation of a Clifford Odets play, Castle is pressured by his studio boss and manipulated into a potentially murderous cover-up to protect his career. The Big Knife 79. by Clifford Odets | Editorial Reviews. Sutherland Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA. The script is packed full of overwrought dialogue and while the cast is great, everyone overacts (some more than others, I'm looking at you Rod Steiger). Charles Castle is a successful Hollywood actor who has opted for screen success over art. April 16, 2013: Clifford Odets is widely viewed as a conflicted artist torn between his social idealism and the compromising reality of working in a commercial industry. An emotionally-tortured Castle wants desperately to win back Marion, who has been proposed to by writer, and friend of Castle's, Hank Teagle. Two great movies, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and George Cukor's A Star Is Born, had already wickedly dissected the less glamorous side of life in the movie industry, but The Big Knife not only presents a far gloomier view of Hollywood, but makes the backstage intrigues of the motion picture capital into a metaphor for the rampant political paranoia of Cold War era America. 4 of 4 people found this review helpful. She eventually leaves with Hank but is actually having second thoughts about Castle. The Big Knife (1955) "A Journey to the Dark Heart of Hollywood" TMDb Score. March 22—June 2, 2013. Lights, Camera, Action! The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, and Everett Sloane.[5]. Adventure. The Big Knife Synopsis A Hollywood mogul (Rod Steiger) bullies a star (Jack Palance) to renew his studio contract. Castle wants to do more inspiring work than the schlock films Hoff pushes on him, but he promises that if the studio head lets him go he will stop acting altogether. Subsequently, Marion and Hank attend a gathering at Castle's place after which Castle prevails upon his wife to listen once again to his reasoning as to why they should reunite. He is adamantly refusing to agree to the contract. Dramatic Acting in the Play The Big Knife. : A Century of the Cinema: What Price Hollywood? New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, was disappointed and believed the plot lacked credibility. With Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen. Hogue X5 3.5" Folding Knife Modified Wharncliffe Plain Edge Aluminum G10 Insert Handle CPM154 Stainless Steel Black. Title: A police lt. is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown, because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. The drama of The Big Knife resides in the tortured contours of Palance’s face as he desperately searches for an escape from this impossible situation. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? In 1945, an American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but tensions between Captain Cooney and Lieutenant Costa run high. [10] The first Broadway revival opened at the American Airlines Theatre on April 16, 2013, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company, directed by Doug Hughes and starring Bobby Cannavale and Richard Kind.[11]. In the end, the simple fact of blackmail works and Castle signs the new contract. Aldrich said he was "terribly ambivalent about the Hoff character". The Hoff crying came from Mayer, who is reported to have been able to cry at the drop of an option. Roundabout Theatre Company presents Clifford Odets’s classic tale about keeping your integrity in the face of success. Unemployed cowhand Jim Garry is hired by his dishonest friend Tate Riling as muscle in a dispute between homesteaders and cattleman John Lufton. So we took the drumroll from Nuremberg and put it under the Hoff character's entrances and exits. Read More. [2], The Big Knife premiered on Broadway at the The Big Knife book. After 1945, six German ex-soldiers are hired to defuse unexploded Allied bombs in the ruins of Berlin. In reality, he is put undercover to identify the mysterious boss of the NY waterfront who has murdered everyone in his way. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Directed by Lee Strasberg, the play starred John Garfield as Charles Castle. A female inmate is whisked out of prison and into a police guarded hotel until the district attorney can convince her to testify against the mob in the upcoming trial. Charles Castle is a successful Hollywood actor who has opted for screen success over art. Film critic Jeff Stafford analyzed some of the film's elements, and wrote: [Of the previous Hollywood-exposé dramas] none...can match the negative depiction of the movie business and its power brokers offered in The Big Knife...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. French box office results for Robert Aldrich films, "Roundabout Revival of Clifford Odets' 'The Big Knife' Ends Broadway Engagement June 2", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Big_Knife&oldid=1019683386, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion, Robert Aldrich; 1955, This page was last edited on 24 April 2021, at 20:20. Overview; Synopsis; Credits; Photos & Videos; Film Details; Articles & Reviews; Quotes; Notes; Brief Synopsis. Marion does not want him to renew his contract with powerful studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff, and will not agree to a reconciliation with her husband if he signs. The Big Knife is an American play by Clifford Odets. 10.0 Out Of Stock Overview. The Big Knife has an early main title design from Saul Bass, and another extra is a half-hour documentary by Bass in which he explains his famous title sequences. Directed by Robert Aldrich. Cast & Crew. This is a movie for which the word powerful was truly invented. Temporarily Out of Stock Online. 1, (Spring 1972): 14-23. Among playwrights and authors lured to Los Angles in the last century, this view of the industry is not uncommon. Crime, Certificate: Passed 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. Certificate: Passed (1955). Charlie Castle is, on the surface, a success. The Big Knife was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD. An unscrupulous movie producer blackmails an unhappy star into signing a new contract. English 0822201151. When 2 detectives steal $80,000 from a dead robber, one of them suffers from a guilty conscience which could lead to murder. He will stop at nothing at getting a new contract signed.Ida Lupino is also extremely fine as Charles Castle's (Palance) wife. Charlie Castle, a very successful Hollywood actor, lives in a huge home with all the amenities associated with his stardom. BY WAY OF REPORT Undoubtedly daring in its day, The Big Knife remains intelligent and literate, but saved from 'safety' by Palance and Steiger's obviously mutual loathing. The Big Knife (1955) In Robert Aldrich's cynical screen adaptation of Clifford Odets' 1949 stage play - a devastating and dark, film noirish, over-the-top look at Hollywood's ruthless search for fame and power: the opening voice-over narration (uncredited Richard Boone): "This is Bel Air, the lush, luxurious retreat of the wealthy and powerful. The Big Knife: Theater Review David Rooney. A retired mob accountant is drawn back in when his brothers, who have recently made a hit for the organization, decide to go to the authorities. The Big Knife marked the return of Odets to Broadway after a six-year hiatus in which he toiled in Hollywood as a screenwriter and motion picture director. Millicent's solitary existence changes when she encounters Burt Hansen a charismatic younger man. Hollywood actor Charles Castle is pressured by his studio boss into a … Millicent Wetherby is a middle-aged woman whose life is devoid of love and affection. The Big Knife focuses on Hollywood and moral decay; Jack Palance plays an actor forced into signing a new contract against the wishes of his wife, who wants him to leave the lifestyle behind. The … The Big Knife - Feb 24, 1949 National Theatre (Original) Shows That Opened That Season: 2012-2013. Hollywood actor Charles Castle is pressured by his studio boss into a criminal cover-up to protect his valuable career. Smiley lays out a plan to achieve this which involves Castle, and murder. Castle does so and is sympathetic to her feelings about being treated shabbily and disregarded as an actress. Bring It On: The Musical In spite of seemingly redeeming himself in many ways, Castle is devastated by the fact that he has betrayed a friend, sacrificed his integrity and anguished the woman he adores. Add to Cart Buy Now. An indictment of the amoral world of 50's Hollywood and its corrosive effect upon the artist. National Theatre on February 24, 1949 and closed on May 28, 1949 after 109 performances. Quick view Add to My Wish List. The Big Knife Clifford Odets' 1949 agenda-driven dissection of Hollywood's inherent corruption is more effective as a lecture on the evils of excessive success than it is as a viable legiter. Written by We'd had twenty years of petty dictators running the industry, during which time everybody worked and everybody got paid, maybe not enough, but they weren't on relief. The Big Knife is a mostly good adaptation of a Clifford Odets play about a Hollywood actor who's being blackmailed into studio servitude while trying to patch up his failing marriage. The Big Knife addresses themes of the individual’s struggle to maintain personal integrity. The Big Knife. Robert Aldrich settles accounts with the film factory.Great actors, cynical story. voice over during a visual montage of expensive homes, as the overhead shot zooms into a back yard where two men are boxing, one of the men being Charlie, ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Okay’: Richard Kind & Maria Bamford To Recur In Season 2 of Freeform Series; Premiere Date Set, My favorite fictional movies about the movie industry. New York Times13 Mar 1955: X5. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Fortune seeker Barry Storm stumbles onto some clues that may lead him to the fabulous Lost Dutchman Mine, but others have tried and been murdered. Need some help finding the best things to watch on Netflix? Read 6 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Film Comment; New York Vol. While The Big Knife was never positioned as a commercial film for the masses, it still failed to find an appreciative audience at the time of its release in the U.S. The Big Knife is Odets’s view of Hollywood as a town without a heart that annihilates artistic ambition and ruins lives, all of which was also seen in the Coen brothers’ Barton Fink, a send-up of Odets’s time in Hollywood. After a brief, quiet respite, Buddy storms in to reveal that he has discovered Castle's fling with Connie; rather than take Castle up on his offer to allow himself to be hit, Buddy spits in his face. However, Hoff and his right-hand man, Smiley Coy, have knowledge of the truth behind a hit-and-run accident in which Castle was behind the wheel and which resulted in a death. An American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but Castle refuses to confirm for. Area of LA where the successful actors, producers and directors in Hollywood.... 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