"The Big Knife" (1955)

Hollywood as an all consuming hell-hole is a story that has been told many times but few quite as compellingly as The Big Knife. Director Robert Aldrich turns Hollywood into a seedy and violent place where even a pristine Beverly Hills home -- the sole shooting location -- can seem like not just a corporeally empty setting, but a highly rotten one. Aldrich also emphasizes the treachery of Hollywood by portraying characters who, though flawed, are good people. They're chewed up and spit right back out by the machinery of the studio system and its interest in money and power. Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) wants to make pictures with meaning and substance and believes in movies as a potentially great art-form with great opportunities for actors, but he simultaneously finds himself blackmailed into a seven year contract to make films with profit-minded producer Stanley Shriner Hoff (Rod Steiger). What's at stake is not only Charlie's artistic integrity but also what little remains of his soul, which has slowly been eaten away by being a Hollywood insider for far too long.

Grade: ★★★