This starts wonderfully with a great Saul Bass credits sequence that consists of Jack Palance sitting in the dark and freaking out, and the first scene between Palance and Ida Lupino is very good.
I bought Palance as a Hollywood star (well he kind of was, wasn’t he – and it’s specified here he was in lots of boxing films etc) and Lupino is excellent as his wife (hard exterior, soft interior – someone who’s been around the block a bit). Rod Steiger’s methody performance as the studio head might have its fans – it certainly can’t be ignored, full of ticks and melodrama.
Wendell Corey is better value as a ruthless studio hatchet man, but the story becomes less believable as it goes on – studios are mean, but I didn’t buy they would consider murder to save a star’s name. Also this might have worked better if set twenty years before – by 1955 studio power was clearly on the slide. I did buy that a movie star killed himself – it’s all about crossing the line of personal principles, and Palance does that.
Shelley Winters does her normal Shelley Winters thing as a trashy woman and I hated the ending with the noble Hollywood writer threatening to tell the story. Directed by Robert Aldrich from the play by Clifford Odets (Aldrich helmed a few plays during his career, notably this, Attack and The Killing of St George), it’s got a lot of Aldrich intensity and shouting.
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