The Bad and the Beautiful: A Screenplay

by Charles Schnee, Matthew J. Bruccoli (Editor)

In 1952, Charles Schnee won the Best Screenplay Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful, the story of a Hollywood producer who is part genius, part louse. Based loosely on Gone with the Wind producer David O. Selznick and played by Kirk Douglas, Schnee’s protagonist is producer Jonathan Shields, who desperately needs the help of three enemies from his past to make a comeback. Schnee presents the story through a series of flashbacks in which the three—director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), actress Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), and writer James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell)—describe their relationships with Shields. Nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of five, The Bad and the Beautiful unfolds against the background of the movie industry of the 1930s and 1940s, as producer John Houseman points out in his foreword to this filmscript. In addition to the final script and Houseman’s foreword, Matthew J. Bruccoli has provided the original ending to the screenplay and Anne F. Hardin’s discussion of the David Raksin score that was used in the film and of adding music to film in general. The Bradshaw short story, "Memorial to a Bad Man," is also included in this volume.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bad and the Beautiful, written by Charles Schnee, directed by Vincente Minnelli, with Kirk Douglas

10 out of 10

- This is a look at this glorious film Through a Glass Brightly, looking at the Signature Strengths of the characters

- The Bad and the Beautiful is an outstanding motion picture
- It has won Academy Awards and Golden Globes in some categories

- But I think that this work is better than The Greatest Show on Earth that was acclaimed as the Best Film of 1952
- Strangely for this viewer, The Bad and the Beautiful was not even nominated for Best Motion Picture

- Or Best Actress in a Leading Role and Vincente Minnelli was also not even considered as Best Director
- I wonder if it has to do with Hollywood inside stories that resemble to some extent the plot of the film…

- Did they consider that the story was wonderful and this is why they gave the writer Charles Schnee the Oscar?
- The members of the Academy might have thought that Minnelli and Lana Turner did not rise to the level of the script?

- If you ask me, The Bad and the Beautiful is one of the best films I know
- The main character played by the magnificent, powerful Kirk Douglas- who is what? 99 now?-is Jonathan Shield

- This hero is extraordinary and a role model in so many ways
- In Signature Strengths :

- He has Wisdom and Knowledge, Justice and most of all Courage!
- Temperance is not his strong point, but then he is not really Superman…just the Ubermensch!
- Jonathan Shield starts small, on film sets that involve the Cat People, B films that he transforms

- A visionary, with his Persistence and Bravery, instead of acting Inside the Box, he shows Creativity
- Creativity is an element of Wisdom

- With his friend, the director Fred Amiel, he takes on a different horror film that becomes a success
- They gave up the silly costumes and based their invention on darkness and ingenuity, winning the jackpot

- They use their Vitality and Appreciation of Beauty for their next production, which was supposed to be…
- Son of the Cat People or something similarly grotesque and ridiculous

- Only for the next big move to the level of a big production, costing over one million dollars, which is probably the equivalent in movie terms of more than three hundred million today, Jonathan abandons his friend
- Or so it seems, for instead of working with Fred Amiel, whose project this film really was, Jonathan would work with an established name

- Counterintuitively, this was a generous decision, for the career of Fred could have ended then and there
- The hero himself, later on takes the helm as a director only to create a catastrophe that is the first to recognize

- The producer is the one to save and launch the career of Georgia Lorrison, played by Lana Turner
- With an major alcohol problem, this actress was destined to ruin when Jonathan reached out and offered redemption

- This where other Signature Strengths played an important role:
- Leadership , Open – Mindedness and Perspective aspects of

- Justice and Knowledge

- Only this is where it gets more complicated and the protagonist might again prove Humility and Mercy

- Or maybe not- I am not sure why he just promoted and created a formidable actress, but rejected the woman in Georgia
- Then the hero is involved in the career of a Pulitzer Prize Winner, the writer James Lee Bertlow, who could be inspired by

- William Faulkner, Steinbeck or Scott F. Fitzgerald, but most likely he is a combination of them all
- As the wife of this talented writer is in the way and blocks his Creativity with a multitude of interruptions- by the way, after a two hour session of work, an interruption can mean a delay of one half hour, just to get back to where the work had been interrupted!!- Jonathan Shield finds a way out

- He gets one of his star actors to take the woman to Mexico so that the husband would get the peace he needs to finish the script
- Only the plane flying them to Acapulco crashes and the two are killed in the accident that actually means the winning of the Pulitzer for the writer, but also shows a rather Unkind Jonathan

Spectacular film!!

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great edition of the Charles Schnee screenplay (filmed by Vincente Minnelli). In addition to Schnee's powerful script, in which three filmmakers think back on the unscrupulous producer who made their careers while breaking their trust, it includes an informative forward by producer John Houseman, the originally written ending that was cut from the film (and not as good as the final product) and the George Bradshaw story on which it was based. A must for any fan of the film and classic Hollywood filmmaking.