The Bad and the Beautiful Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Memorial to a Bad Man" or "Tribute to a Badman" or "Cautivos del mal" or "Les ensorcelÃ©s" )

directed by Vincente Minnelli
USA 1952

The rise, fall and resurgence of a loutish Hollywood producer, as told through the eyes of three people he made then alienated. This quintessential movie on movies is an engrossing, seductive Minnelli epic, graced with superb performances.

The three separate stories, revolving around Douglas, a ruthless producer whose cunning ways allow him to climb to the top of the Hollywood heap, are told by star Turner, director Sullivan and writer Powell. Some film buffs believe that Douglas's role model was Val Lewton, the extravagant, driven producer of the 1940s, since Lewton made CAT PEOPLE and Douglas produces "The Cat Men" in the film. However, the character is more likely based on mogul David O. Selznick, particularly his beginnings as a B-film producer, his grooming of future wife Jennifer Jones and his making of a colossal Civil War film which, of course, was GONE WITH THE WIND...

Excerpt of review from TV Guide located HERE

***

Kirk Douglas plays the corrupt and amoral head of a major film studio in this Hollywood drama, often regarded as one of the film's industry's most interesting glimpses at itself. Actress Gloria Lorrison (Lana Turner), director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), and screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) are invited to a meeting at a Hollywood sound stage at the request of producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon). Pebbel is working with studio chief Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), whose studio is in financial trouble and needs a blockbuster hit. If these three names will sign to a new project, he's convinced that there's no way he can lose. But there's a rub -- all three of these Hollywood heavyweights hate Shields's guts. He dumped Gloria for another woman, he double-crossed Fred out of a plum directing assignment, and he was responsible for the death of James Lee's wife. All three are ready to tell Pebbel to forget it, until they hear the voice of Shields, calling from Europe to discuss the project by phone. The Bad and the Beautiful won five Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Gloria Grahame.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 25th, 1952

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Warner Brothers Region 1 - NTSC	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:57:40	1:57:49.103
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.91 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,140,076,282 bytes Feature: 34,412,531,712 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English, French (Dolby Digital 1.0)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1975 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1975 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Brothers Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 4:3 Edition Details: • Cast & Crew Listings • Scoring Session Cues • Lana Turner: A Daughter's Memories (1:26:01) • Theatrical Trailer • Theatrical Trailer for Awards Listings DVD Release Date: February 5th, 2002 Snapper Chapters 33	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,140,076,282 bytes Feature: 34,412,531,712 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Scoring Session Cues • Lana Turner: A Daughter's Memories (1:26:28) • Theatrical Trailer (2:42) Blu-ray Release Date: November 19th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 34

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (December 2019): Warner Archive have transferred Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful to Blu-ray. The previous, flipper disc, DVD had a puny bitrate and this 1080P is over seven times that SD transfer. This is in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio, is much brighter and has far superior contrast. I see texture and overall this is a great transfer as compared to the previous digital disc incarnation. Fans should be ecstatic.

NOTE: We have added 48 more large resolution Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The audio follows the video with a pronounced improvement. This is easily noticeable in the score by David Raksin (Forever Amber, The Day After, Separate Tables, Laura, Bigger Than Life, The Big Combo) sounding fuller and richer in the lossless. Warner Archive offer optional English subtitles (gaudy bold yellow) on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray has the same extras as their DVD from 2002. Repeated are Carole Langer's 2001 documentary Lana Turner... a Daughter's Memoir narrated by Robert Wagner. It runs 86-minutes and is still in SD but worth watching. There are also the Scoring Session Cues and a trailer. This film really cries out for a commentary - so much behind the scenes to discuss.

The Bad and the Beautiful has Vincente Minnelli's looking at Hollywood without rose-colored glasses. It's a brilliant and unique film - one that I am very pleased to have in the superior Blu-ray format. Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Gloria Grahame... wow. This is a very rewatchable film and I will covet this BD despite the lack of new extras (typical of Warner.)

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: Warner did a competent job with the release although it contains two of the packaging elements that fans find most annoying: flippers (dual-sided disc) and snappers (snapper case). While Warner has thankfully abandoned both of these practices, this is currently the only way to get the release in region 1. I'm happy to say that the image quality here is quite good. The film is presented in a way that preserves Minnelli's original palette through strong contrasts between the black and white. The sound is similarly good and leaves no room for complaint. And, while I found most of the extras to be of little interest, the 2001 TCM feature-length documentary, on the feature's opposite disc side, by Lana Turner's daughter is a real standout and should be of interest to anyone interested in classic Hollywood. Although this film may not be for everyone, its certainly worth at least one viewing based on the great direction and performances.

- Brian Montgomery