A dark study of the seedier side of showbiz, The Big Knife is adapted from the stage play by Clifford Odets and James Poe. Movie star Charlie Castle, (Jack Palance) is crippled with guilt at selling out to Hollywood, and is struggling to break out of the studio system and make films worthy of his talents and stage background. Studio mogul Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger) isn’t about to let Charlie, an idol to millions of women across America and thus in possession of an army of fans, leave in a hurry. Thus Charlie finds himself trapped: victim of a studio blackmail plot over an accidental death in his past, an attempt to force him to renew his contact, and on the verge of losing his wife (Ida Lupino), who wants him to give it all up and move to New York. Winner of the Silver Lion at Venice, The Big Knife is a bold indictment of the amoral world that was 1950’s Hollywood, and it’s corrosive effect on the artist.

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