Marvelous film adapted from Clifford Odets stage play, and such a brilliant cast! I wish we still had gems like this to choose from, but thankfully this is available on RU-vid. Much appreciation.
Wow. Just wow. I had forgotten how powerful a carefully crafted, brilliantly acted piece of dramatic film making could be. Palance, Lupino, Steiger and the entire supporting cast (especially Wendell Corey with those pale blue, dead eyes of his). It's like a Greek tragedy set in Hollywood. I hope this won some awards or at least critical recognition. A masterpiece.
Whoa! WOW. What acting. One of the best, if not the best I’ve ever seen. All that was commented on is true. I find most of the 40’s and 50’s movie acting is unbelievable. Every actor in this movie was superb. Great casting and everything else. Thanks!
The more I watch this production, the more I think Ida was underrated. She really is uniquely beautiful with those riveting ice blue eyes and her fantastic figure. I always considered her one of the more serious actresses of her era--possibly it had something to do with the depth of her voice--but the costuming in this film really showcases her physical beauty. Hollywood hasn't put anything like this out in decades.
+Cynthia Lyman The play was written by Clifford Odets with John Garfield in mind (Garfield starred in the original play in the late 1940's). Both Odets and Garfield were part of the original Group Theatre back in the 1930's and were good friends. Odets also wrote Golden Boy hoping that Garfield would star in it when the Group produced it but that never came to be. That was one of the reasons why Garfield left The Group for Hollywood. The story in The Big Knife in some ways parallels John Garfield's Hollywood career. Both he and Charlie Castle were casualties of the Hollywood persona.
Ida Lupino was an award winning director with her own production company. Her " figure" you refer seems ignorant and unnecessary, especially considering how women are still judged by appearances 60+ years after this film.
@@SC-uq2jf As a woman I must say Ida Lupino was hardly someone whose figure would be much objectified. Those who think it was must be responding more to her character and carriage.
Just brilliant. Aldrich often makes the women stronger than the men and it just makes the drama extremely tight. Oddly Ida Lupino-who I thought was wonderful and drop dead gorgeous- had a sister who talked to MY sister a lot about Hollywood. Mega wonderful
THE BIG KNIFE (1955) JACK PALANCE and IDA LUPINO High drama - low morals - deep unhappiness and tortured souls - this is an exhausting watch - but watch you must - the scene where he hears the recording of his wife is such a tender moment I'm still crying now
Wow!!! Powerful movie! Excellent, Excellent acting! Ida, Jack and Rod should of gotten an oscar. The part where Jack and Rod were going at it back and forth was like poetry in motion. But every cast was great. Tku for post.
It almost reminds me of a Shakespearean play. With the dialogue and characters. the variety of background music is a trip also......... "the red neon lights are on and the sky is full of drunken blackbirds" 42:34 What a crazy line!.....
Nothing could make Jack Palance look better than he does in this film, next to Ida - While she has a big smile on her face ! I'm sure that would make me look good too ! TNX 4 Posting !
Steiger is one of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood history. His performance in The Pawnbroker is one of the most tragic ever filmed. And in No Way To Treat A Lady one of the most insane!
OMG! Poor Charlie appears to be so frightened of Stanley Hoffman, that he dare not even interrupt him, whilst he is speaking, for one second, to enable himself to retrieve his cigarette lighter, in his own home! .... Thank you for posting this great film! Top class actors/actresses, starring! Love Ida Lupino @ Shelly Winters! xxxxx
This was one of the most RIVETING films, I've seen. The performances were STELLAR. Always the best from Ida Lupino, but never witnessed Jack Palance as such a tender and vulnerable character. Makes you wonder if he could have been a sensitive soul in real life. Hollywood has had years of practice in buying and selling souls. I know these studio characters in the film and music business are just as FILTHY, GREEDY and EVIL as depicted in the movie. Thanks for sharing.
+TechLady See JP in the Playhouse 90 production of "Requiem for a Heavyweight", as a washed-up prizefighter. Written by Rod Serling. RIGHT HERE ON RU-vid!!!
By all accounts he was a rotten dog. Richard Widmark said he was the only actor he ever hated. Hated. He said that he and Palance had a fight scene in a movie and that Palance literally "tried to break my back." Widmark said he had lifetime pain from Palance's intentional brutality.
Ida Lupino , had that special quality and presence all her own,, she was an excellent actress, great personality in every movie i have seen her in.... Shelley Winters acting was very good,and her style was interesting.....
This is one film that must be seen by students of acting. Jack Palance as Charlie Castle turns in one of his best performances. The film was riveting from start to finish, with a great cast. Rod Steiger as the studio boss is menacing with his white hair. Ida Lupino was married to Howard Duff at the time this movie was made. I can't help but feel she drew some emotions from her marriage to Duff for this film, an excellent performance as well. If you need action in your movies this is not the film for you, but if you enjoy an intelligent script and good acting see The Big Knife.
In the very beginning when the narrator is talking about Bel Air while pics of houses are being shown, you'll see the Kirkeby mansion, later to be used for exterior shots for "The Beverly Hillbilllies". Remember driving by there many years ago, before the road was changed or closed off.
Jack Palance was a professional boxer in 1940s before he joined the US Airforce as a trainee pilot suffered injuries in crash in 1942,discharged through those injuries and later became an actor.
In Rod Serling's brilliant "Requiem for a Heavyweight," produced for Playhouse 90, Jack Palance plays a washed-up prize-fighter undermined and ultimately sold out by his manager. The final beating this pro fighter takes is poignant and tragic, but in Serling's deft hands, Palance's performance rings with pathos and ethos, without ever falling into the mundane or trite. The Big Knife is similar, but after a vew more viewings seems far more stagey, more theatrical, appropriate since Odets wrote it as a play. However, the cast is stellar and the story sadly fascinating; we can see the inevitable accident strewn out up ahead in the road, yet we don't turn away.
***** HEY!! That's not a nice thing to say about Jack! And I happen to look like Jack. Square jaw, broad shoulders, smooth, vodka vocal cords, and size 14 feet! Women sway and swoon when they see me walkin'!!
@@theeffectedcollective4261 ha ha and the rich/celebrity doesn't know how to wear them or carry such class. These stars, real stars have it all, class, pure class, when the Silver Screen was just that, paved with paths and dreams of gold. May we learn to savour their spirit and remember what they gave us, dreams, pure dreams. Always, cheers.
Some styles come back. Or maybe a little change that was very similar to the old style. The old styles had so much class. I always loved a guy who dressed well. I never seen my dad in jeans. He didn't even own a pair of jeans. He never wore shorts. Never could figure that one out.
I think that's because it's written as a play. There's next to no "action" in the film sense of the word. People sitting around talking. Like flies in a spider's web.
Wonderful to watch the open halves of the two egg shells so to speak creato joined at the lower rim how much. !!! she !!! manages to grip grab and convince albeit momentarily for an undecided !!!! him !!!!
The actor is a painting of. A Clown with a changing face hiding its emotions and revealing itself to the right admirer .. with different faces, keeping whatever it can safe within somewhere in the painting. Where no one will ever know the truth. Until he is no more! This is my analyses of “The Big Knife “ with the all star cast. Staring Jack Palance in his best role,the one that made him famous.
Exceptional acting from ALL of the characters. A very underrated movie. Shelly Winters was great in her usual character role, however, surprisingly good was Jean Hagen from The Danny Thomas Sitcom with a complete role reversal. I also noticed Paul Langdon playing "Buddy" was a regular on ABC's TV series Peyton Place.
Great performances all around, but a semi-auto biographical script by Clifford Odets who, having learned his craft working with the Group Theater, always wrote great parts for actors. Another gem to see is "Country Girl", which won Grace Kelly an Oscar. All these characters are based on real life people Odets knew when he worked in Hollywood. And the Hoff character is based on a real studio executive who was famous for crying during contract talks. What's amazing is people don't realize that Hollywood is still basically the same; albeit there is no "studio contract" system anymore. Made in 1955, after the demise of the studio system; otherwise would never have been made into a film.
Great movie. A real roller-coaster ride of a flick with no dead or boring spots. Keep up the great work. Liked it so much I just subscribed to your channel.
Thanks for uploading,very engaging film version of this 'on the money' stage play by Clifford Odets.Great performances , obviously very wordy in the style of an all about Eve type movie, but like that movie carried off in style.Ida and Rod Steiger steal the show for me.
This is not so much a "movie" as a filmed stage-play. (The same may be said of 1959's musical comedy "L'il Abner", also on youtube.) The creaky, 'stagey' dialogue gives it away. (One half-expects the curtain to come down between scenes.) If you really want to see Jack Palance at his very best, see early TV's "Requiem for a Heavyweight".
You see that this is a play. The dialog is denser than the usual film. It reminds me of films made from Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee, though theirs are a step above this. As for films about Hollywood, my favorite is "Barton Fink" by the Coens.
All the CGI, technology etc STILL cannot make excellent films like this! They just don’t make actors like this anymore! The gifted directors of the past are gone. Excellent scripts writers, gone
Dixie sounded (or tried to) like Marilyn Monroe. After all, Winters and Monroe were roommates early on in their careers. The "doing away" with Dixie because her loose lips brought to mind Marilyn's so-called suicide. I love the dialogue in classic films; modern English superbly articulated.
This film came thru when Hollywood was in flux television was proving to be . The power of noir a stellar ensemble cast , Oscar worthy . Can y read the film I can.
Clifford Odets is too over-the-top for my tastes, sort of a northern Tennessee Williams, but you've got to hand it to the cast--not a bad performance on screen. The real surprise was Jack Palance. Who could have imagined?
Good point, perhaps an orientation from a stage play where there is one central set on the stage. "Seven year Itch" does something similar; almost everything happens in the small apt. Another stage play originally. Theatre people love the theater. Maybe that's not the worse thing.
I've said this before but isn't this the best of its genre? Shelley Winters always unfortunately play the same party! They talked about her a lot more than we saw her thank God !!
Tgm turner classic movies, is now turnerGarbage movies, today they show nutin but Gabage,some good movies once in a while Robert Osborn, kept clean and good, Ben stinks 😷 that’s why I’m glad we have these movies.👍
