I hadn’t seen The Big Knife since the early days of TCM. I recall liking the movie, but it didn’t make a major impact on me. Dr. A and I saw it recently and were both blown away by its excellence. Maybe it was the Noir Alley introduction or the amazing house in which the film was shot. Whatever it was, I now think The Big Knife is da bomb. Do the kids still say that?

Some don’t like the movie because of the Clifford Odets’ supposedly florid and bombastic language. The language is part of the attraction for me. Odets was the Bard of the Group Theatre. He regarded his movie writing as hack work, but The Big Knife was different. It was Odets’ poison pen letter to Hollywood. It debuted as a play in 1949.

The Big Knife was written for and starred John Garfield on stage. Tragically, by 1955 Garfield was dead. He’s unlikely to have made the movie in any event because of the blacklist. Great actor, good man, tormented soul.

The Garfield role of Charlie Castle went instead to Jack Palance. I’ve never found Palance to be a likeable actor, but he is in The Big Knife; more importantly his voice is a revelation. I’m used to seeing him in less verbal roles. I didn’t understand what a marvelous instrument his voice was until now.

The Big Knife has a genuinely amazing cast: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, and Shelley Winters. As usual, I’ll be using the actors own names instead of the character names. It’s easier to keep them straight that way.

The movie’s PR campaign focused on the remarkable cast:

Jack Palance is a self-loathing movie star trying NOT to re-sign a contract with loathsome mogul Rod Steiger. Steiger’s character shouts like Harry Cohn and cries like Louis B. Mayer. He’s the movie mogul as monster. It’s a smallish but showy part: Steiger embraces Odets’ OTT dialogue and makes it his own.

The movie mogul monster is usually accompanied by Wendell Corey whose character has an ironic nickname, Smiley. Corey is Steiger’s enforcer and fixer. He likes Palance but da boss is da boss:

Palance hates himself for selling out and allowing the studio to protect him from a scandal that would have ended his career. The monster movie mogul is NOT above blackmail and he uses Palance’s secret to control him.

Ida Lupino excels as Palance’s estranged wife. Have I told you lately how much I love Ida Lupino?

She’s the nicest character in the movie but hates Rod Steiger with a fine fury. Who doesn’t? One meeting with him and deafness beckons: the man is a screamer. Lupino is willing to come back to Palance but only if he ends his devil’s bargain with Steiger.

Everett Sloan plays Palance’s agent. He’s a nice but weak man who is reminiscent of Sloan’s character Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane.

Like Steiger, Shelley Winters has a smallish but crucial part. Winters was always a scene stealer and her turn in The Big Knife is no exception.

The movie ends with Palance feeling trapped and looking for a way out. That’s all the plot I’m willing to share. This feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers, after all.

The movie was produced and directed by Robert Aldrich. It was strictly an independent film; the studios weren’t interested in a script that made them look like venal varlets and villains.

The real star of The Big Knife is Clifford Odets whose play was faithfully adapted for the screen by James Poe. The script is simultaneously outlandish and grounded. A reminder that the character of Barton Fink in the Coen Brothers movie of that name is based on Odets. I gave Odets and John Turturro the separated at birth treatment last year:

I rarely comment on set decoration but the house in which the movie takes place is Mid-Century modern design at its poshest. The action mostly takes place there. Jack Palance is trapped in a gilded modernist cage, which he finds increasingly claustrophobic.

Grading Time: If you prefer movies where there’s more whacking than yakking, The Big Knife is not for you. I give it 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A. It’s another stone cold classic.

It’s time to posterize your life or some such shit. There are many variations on the posters, some work better than others.

I don’t get the white glasses and the excessive text below. Who knew The Big Knife was a hunk a hunk of burning Hollywood love

I don’t know about you, but the posters made me hungry. I have no idea why.

Let’s all go to the lobby.

The lobby cards continue the knife motif and show how gorgeous Charlie Castle’s modernist castle truly is. Once again, the movie is shot in glorious black and white and the lobby cards are in color.

It’s trailer time:

The last word goes to Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley intro and outro in one video this time.