| The Big Knife | |
| Director: | Robert Aldrich |
| Producer: | Robert Aldrich |
| Screenplay: | James Poe |
| Narrator: | Richard Boone |
| Starring: | Jack Palance Ida Lupino Wendell Corey Jean Hagen Rod Steiger Shelley Winters |
| Music: | Frank De Vol |
| Cinematography: | Ernest Laszlo |
| Editing: | Michael Luciano |
| Studio: | The Associates Aldrich Company |
| Distributor: | United Artists |
| Runtime: | 111 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $400,000–460,000[1] [2] |
| Gross: | $1,250,000[3] 220,066 admissions (France)[4] |
The Big Knife is a 1955 American melodrama film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, and Everett Sloane.[5]
The story delves into the dark side of Hollywood, exploring themes of corruption, betrayal, and the destructive nature of fame. Jack Palance delivers a powerful performance as a conflicted movie star trapped by his own success and the manipulations of the film industry. The film is noted for its intense atmosphere and sharp critique of the pressures and moral compromises inherent in show business. It received critical acclaim for its direction, screenplay, and strong ensemble cast, cementing its place as a significant work in 1950s American cinema.
Movie star Charlie Castle “sold out his dreams but can't forget them.” Influential gossip columnist Patty Benedict interrupts his sparring exercise with Nick to get the lowdown on a rumored separation from his wife, Marion, who has taken their young son to the beach. She dismisses studio PR man Buddy Bliss, who arrives on her heels.
Benedict threatens to revive an old scandal involving a fatal hit and run accident that sent Buddy to jail. She asks why the studio took Buddy back. We learn later that Charlie was behind the wheel; Buddy took the blame. Marion comes downstairs as Benedict is leaving. The columnist tackles her, in vain.
Marion has had enough of Charlie's “occasional girls” and of his relinquishing his ideals and surrendering to powerful studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff.
Hank Teagle, a writer friend, has proposed to Marion. Charlie wants desperately to win her back. She wants the man she married. If he refuses to sign the 7-year-contract Hoff is “offering” him, it will prove he can change.
Charlie pleads with his agent, Nat, to help him. Nat warns him that if he doesn't sign, he goes to jail. Hoff and Smiley arrive at Charlie's house to close the deal. Charlie's defiance enrages Hoff, who threatens him. Castle signs.
Charlie has sex with Buddy's seductive wife, Connie. Later, Marion and Hank have dinner at Charlie's place. Charlie wants her to listen to the reasons they should reunite. She leaves with Hank, who asks her to make up her mind.
Meanwhile, Smiley drops in to tell Charlie that Dixie Evans, a starlet who was in the car with Charlie the night of the accident, is threatening to reveal what she knows. Smiley suggests Castle persuade her to keep quiet. Charlie tries, and is sympathetic to her feelings about being treated shabbily and disregarded as an actress. She wants to damage Hoff, not Charlie.
Hank brings Marion back to Charlie. Dixie leaves. Marion makes it clear she is willing to try again.
Smiley tells Charlie that Dixie went to Hoff's office and caused such an upheaval that Hoff beat her, brutally. Smiley tries to involve Charlie in a plan to murder her. Charlie summons Hoff and Nat and, with Marion present and now aware of Dixie's presence the night of the accident, defies the ruthless men who employ him. He insists that nothing should happen to Dixie.
Hoff and Smiley try one more extortion ploy, producing secret recordings of Marion with Hank. Neither Marion nor Charlie are moved by this attempt and, finally, an outraged Hoff fires Castle.
While Nick is drawing a bath. Marion plays the rest of the recording, on which she tells Hank why she can never leave Castle. She and Charlie embrace.
Buddy walks in, weeping. He has discovered Castle's fling with Connie. Castle offers to let Buddy hit him. Buddy spits in his face.
On his way upstairs, Charlie asks Marion if he has told her that day how much he loves her. She replies that she loves him and is committed to him. He walks slowly upstairs. Smiley rushes in to telephone Hoff and tell him that Dixie, staggering out of a bar and into the street, was struck and killed by a city bus.
Water is flowing through the ceiling and from upstairs comes the sound of voices calling to Charlie and banging on the bathroom door. Hank enters. Marion walks upstairs to the sound of breaking wood. Smiley runs down, grabs the phone and dictates an obit full of lies to the studio, adding that they should “tell Stanley that Charlie slashed himself three times.” Voices upstairs tell Marion she can't go in. She screams, once.
Nick comes down. “The whole bunch of you killed him” he tells Smiley. Marion descends. She tries to wipe the blood from her dress and her hands.
Hank tells Hoff that Hoff's work is finished, that he will talk to the reporters and tell the truth: Charlie just could not go on hurting those he loved. Hugging Charlie's jacket, Marion sobs “Charlie, Help”, repeating “Help” louder and louder as the camera pulls away and irises out.
In March 1955, Aldrich signed a contract with Clifford Odets to produce the film. A script by James Poe had already been written and Jack Palance set to star. The film was produced by Aldrich's own production company.[6]
Aldrich said in 1972 he was "terribly ambivalent about the Hoff character". When he directed the film, several of the Hollywood studio moguls were still in power.
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. Seventeen years later you wonder if the industry is really more healthy in terms of creativity. Are we making more or better pictures without that central control? But when everybody worked under those guys, they hated them. So we took the drumroll from Nuremberg and put it under the Hoff character's entrances and exits. It wasn't too subtle... The Hoff crying came from Mayer, who is reported to have been able to cry at the drop of an option. But the big rebuff that Odets suffered was at the hands of Columbia, so there was more of Cohn in the original play than there was of Mayer.
Aldrich later said he wished he and the writer had cut down Odets' play. "At the time, I thought that kind of theatrical flavoring was extraordinary. I'm afraid neither Jim Poe nor I were tough enough in editing some of Odets' phrases as we should have been."[7]
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, was disappointed and believed the plot lacked credibility. He wrote:
The Chicago Tribune wrote:
Film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote in 2004:
Film critic Jeff Stafford wrote in 2008:
Film critic Nathan Rabin wrote in 2022:
The Big Knife is a film of excess. It's over-written, over-acted, overwrought and over-emotional. It's full of bombast and shouting and actorly monologues but the film has the courage of its convictions. It's unrelenting and unsparing in its depiction of the film industry as a hellscape where the worst of capitalism meets the worst of the arts.[5]Rotten Tomatoes rates the film 91% based on 11 reviews.[8]
Aldrich later claimed that although the film cost $400,000 and made over $1 million it lost him money because the distributor took the profits.[2]
Wins
Nominations
The Big Knife was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.
It has been shown on the Turner Classic Movies show 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller.