TheLittleSongbird The Big Knife is not for everybody. Some will find it very literate, well-directed and acted(mostly), handling the tense and satire aspects deftly, while others will find it overdone. Both viewpoints are completely understandable, for me there were parts where the film did fall into the latter camp but most of the time it was the former.As an adaptation of the stage play, which is very compelling and thought-provoking, it is very faithful and translates well adaptation-wise. As a film, it's far from perfect but it comes over well as a film.There are a few things that don't come off quite as successfully as the rest of the film. Rod Steiger has a very ruthless character, but for my tastes Steiger plays the role too broadly to the point that Hoff felt more of a cartoonish caricature than a real person, to the extent that it came close to hurting the balance of the film and he didn't come over as very threatening. In his performance, there is a lot of camp and scenery-chewing, but not enough of the menace that the role so ruthlessly written needs. The ending does dissolve into contrived melodrama, which is where it is most understandable as to why some will find the film overdone, and felt rushed as well. Lastly, the film does feel over-scored in places, in the places where there is music the blaring music cues felt intrusive.With the exception of Steiger, the performances are very good. Jack Palance's powerhouse lead performance is one of his best, while Ida Lupino is heart-wrenching and dignified. Wendall Corey wisely underplays and is very entertaining, and Everett Sloane, Jean Hagen(chilling in a role so different to hers in Singin' In the Rain) and a memorable Shelley Winters(in a performance that hits hard) do equally pleasingly. The script is remarkably literate and intelligent, with the tension being portrayed quite realistically and the satire being boldly lacerating. The story moves deliberately, but the tension present is enough to haunt the mind and the subject matter is a bold one and told in a biting, sometimes fun and poignant way. The Big Knife is photographed with class and atmosphere, the production values are appropriately claustrophobic and Robert Aldrich's direction is more than able, often excellent.Overall, a very acquired taste, but for this viewer while not without flaws it was a well done film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Movie Critic Dull and boring. A movie about the movie making world and what they will do to cover up scandals among their best actors.I found the drama about the actor's marriage far too scattered and uninteresting. This film is supposed to show that some studio owners were evil greedy men making their stars produce garbage meaningless movies for money--using corrupted directors (gee what a surprise!). Also that this unfufilling career (producing kitch) leads to infidelity and marriage problems and robs the souls of the poor actors.Personally I would rather watch 99 River Street any day than this boring thing--all the studios would have gone bankrupt if they only produced these pseudo-intellectual masterpieces of boredom. An ugly now very dated looking French painting is supposed to symbolize the studio owners and of course the high culture and intelligence of the actor or rather his wife who bought it. PSEUDO-INTELLECTUALITY DEFINED.It drags it goes no where. It is talky with endless unemotive dialogue--in fact the scream when his wife finds his body--is the first non droning dialogue you hear--it made me jump. Shelley Winters is the most memorable actor for her short part where she is hopelessly dense and annoying.Watch things like 77 River Street...that is entertainment when things try to become too meaningful or artsy they flop..Several reviews say they let the actors control this entire movie allowing too much hamming and over-rehearsed stops (scenes).One last thing the tinny jazz soundtrack for this thing it was so bad it became irritating.DO NOT RECOMMEND

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- The Big Knife, 1955. A ten year established contract actor at a major studio feels like he's being mishandled by his studio. He wants to quit acting, but his contract is coming due for another seven years. He is put in a dilemma of conscience. The studio head tries to manipulate him, his family, career, and friend in a negative way for the studio's monetary interest. The actor is pushed to breaking point.*Special Stars- Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger, Everett Stone, Nick Cravat, Shelley Winters.*Theme- Contractual bondage for an idealist is a bad idea.*Trivia/location/goofs- Film Noir, Method Actors cast. The studio head role was patterned after Columbia and MGM studio heads, Cohen and Mayer. This film was blacklisted by all the major studios for it's anti-studio content. It came out during the 'contract actors' legal fight to break the studio system by Bettie Davis and other actors. Film plot supposedly based on a true story about secret collusion between studio heads(John Huston & Louis Mayer), media(Louella Parsons) against studio actors. Several possible examples are Thomas Ince's death aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht, the death of Jean Harlow's husband, the beating death of Ted Healy (recent stories allege Wallace Beery was responsible) Burt Lancaster(played in a similar subject matter film 'Sweet Smell of Success' '57) turned down the male lead role and John Garfield accepted but died by heart attack before shooting started. Shelley Winters dedicated her role to Garfield.*Emotion- This was a un-entertaining too static Method Actor melodramatic mish-moss. Weird miscasting for lead roles didn't help. The film title is crazy, too. It's a harsh message movie indictment on the studio contract players and draconian studio system. I have no problems with the actor's performance in either. But the fact 'The Big Knife' was shot like a locked down stage performance in essentially one house interior set made this film too static. It suffered greatly by constant plot and script referrals to dramatic incidents and people off camera. Therefore not pushing the script forward enough to make it dramatic & interesting. 'Sweet Smell' was more of a watchable interesting feature movie with all of the good production trimmings. The Big Knife leaves you confused, bored, and let down due to the films harsh ending.*Based On- Clifford Odets play.

seymourblack-1 Robert Aldrich's "The Big Knife" is essentially a blistering attack on the old Hollywood studio system but is also a sympathetic account of the circumstances which lead to a successful movie star's complete mental and emotional breakdown. This tragic story of blackmail, lost ideals and the gross abuse of power features a group of predominantly unpleasant characters whose moral standards are deplorably low and who ultimately suffer as a consequence of their involvement in a cesspit of corruption and dubious practices.Actor Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) is reluctant to sign a new contract he's been offered by studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff (Rod Steiger) because of his wife's opposition and also because he no longer wishes to be associated with the successful but poor quality movies he's been involved with in the past. Hoff is a particularly ruthless character who isn't prepared to let one of his studio's top money earners leave without a struggle.Some time previously, Charlie had been involved in a hit and run accident in which a child was killed. The studio arranged a cover up and press agent Buddy Bliss (Paul Langton) was the fall guy who was made to confess and then serve a ten month prison sentence.Inevitably Hoff puts pressure on Charlie and threatens to expose the truth about the car accident if he doesn't cooperate. Charlie feels that he has no choice and signs the contract. When he phones his estranged wife Marion (Ida Lupino) and tells her what he's done, she hangs up on him. Marion had initially left Charlie because of his womanising and drinking but had said that she'd consider a reconciliation if he rejected the new contract. Since leaving Charlie, she'd also started a new relationship with one of their oldest friends Hank Teagle (Wesley Addy). Hank had proposed to her but she hadn't accepted.One night after drinking heavily to assuage his anguish over what had happened, Charlie is visited by Buddy's alcoholic wife Connie (Jean Hagen). She makes it clear that she too knows about his culpability regarding the accident and the circumstances which led to her husband going to prison. The despairing Charlie decides to go upstairs to bed and Connie follows.Another problem arises when it comes to light that a studio starlet called Dixie Evans (Shelley Winters) who was in the car with Charlie on the night of the accident, has been talking indiscreetly about the incident to anyone who'll listen. Charlie finds that she's been talking to take revenge on the studio that has used her to entertain exhibitors instead of giving her work as an actress.Studio fixer Smiley Coy (Wendell Corey) responds to the threat posed by Dixie by trying to conscript Charlie into an arrangement to murder her by using "doctored gin" and when Charlie refuses he then suggests that Charlie should marry her. Fortunately, neither of these solutions is required as the inebriated starlet is conveniently run over by a bus in a genuine accident. Despite this, Charlie's experiences take a heavy toll on him and ultimately become totally unbearable.The predicament that Charlie found himself in made him tormented as he felt threatened from all directions and cornered into a position from which there was no way out that offered him any genuine happiness for the future. Being blackmailed by his powerful studio boss was bad enough but the ongoing threat of having the truth about the hit and run incident being carelessly exposed by the unstable Connie or Dixie made matters worse as did the threat posed by a gossip columnist who promised to revisit the story in the press if he refused to give her some tittle tattle about the state of his marriage.Marion believed she inhabited to moral high ground in urging him to stand by his ideals at all costs but didn't think it wrong to blackmail him by saying that any reconciliation would be dependent on him not signing the contract. Her ideals also didn't prevent her from starting a new relationship with an old mutual friend who was also claimed to be a man of high ideals! "The Big Knife" was based on the successful play of the same name by Clifford Odets and does look stagy but this quality also gives the action an appropriately claustrophobic atmosphere. The use of numerous low and high angle shots also reinforces visually the feelings of turmoil and helplessness that Charlie experiences. This is a well directed movie with strong performances but it's probably the rather depressing story which prevented it from being a greater success commercially.