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.
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.