AWARDS & HONORS

The National Board of Review voted The Bad and the Beautiful the seventh best film of 1952.

Both Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland were nominated for Golden Globes in the supporting categories. She lost to Katy Jurado in High Noon and he lost to Millard Mitchell in My Six Convicts, neither of whom would receive Oscar® nominations.

Although planned for a January 1953 general release, MGM rushed The Bad and the Beautiful into Los Angeles theatres in December 1952 to qualify for the Academy Awards®. The move paid off, as the film won Oscar® nominations for Best Actor (Kirk Douglas), Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Black and White Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Black and White Costume Design.

The Bad and the Beautiful ended up the big winner on Oscar® night, winning five awards. Douglas was the only nominee not honored.

The film was nominated for the British Academy Award for Best Film From Any Source.

The Bad and the Beautiful was voted a place on the National Film Registry in 2002.

THE CRITICS' CORNER - THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952)

"An all-star cast, well-chosen and a strong story with recognizable elements of drama, melodrama and romance, plus a few sardonic touches provide exploitable hinges on which the film can be ballyhooed."
- Brog., Variety

"The widely circulated notion that there are monsters in Hollywood is given unqualified endorsement with no reservations and no holds barred. The hero of this relentless saga is a Hollywood producer who is a heel. And the fine job of drawing and quartering him that is done in the course of two hours by a top staff of MGM dissectors is enough to make the blood run cold...Minnelli's craftsmanship and Houseman's skill as a producer are evident in the slickness of the film. But certainly they and all the others who worked on it know much more about the subject of Hollywood egos and championship chumps than is revealed in this sardonic scan of Hollywood."
- Bosley Crowther, New York Times

"Minnelli has captured the eerie quality of an empty sound stage at night, the sterilized look of a writer's office on the lot, the dull meaninglessness of a noisy cocktail party attended by picture people. As an exhibition of know-how in picture-making The Bad and the Beautiful is first rate, although every now and then Charles Schnee's screenplay goes in for dubious melodrama."
- Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review "It's a piquant example of what it purports to expose -- luxurious exhibitionism -- and the course of what is described as a 'rat race' to success is the softest turf ever. The structure is all too reminiscent of Citizen Kane [1941], and there is the "Rosebud" of Douglas' ill-defined Oedipal confusion, but there are also flashy, entertaining scenes and incidents derived from a number of famous careers. And the director, Vincente Minnelli, has given the material an hysterical stylishness; the black-and-white cinematography (by Robert Surtees) is more than dramatic -- it has a temperament."
- Pauline Kael, 5,001 Nights at the Movies

"The film itself has an elegant glitter which preserves and glorifies the Hollywood myth rather than undermining it."
- The Oxford Companion to Film

"Very much a Hollywood 'in' picture, this rather obvious flashback melodrama offers good acting chances and a couple of intriguing situations; never quite finding the style it seeks, it offers good bitchy entertainment along the way...."
- Halliwell's Film & Video Guide

"For all the cleverness of the apparatus, it lacks a point of view."
- Penelope Houston

"Clever, sharply observed little scenes reflect the Hollywood surface: the egotistic babble at a party, the affectations of European directors, the sneak preview, the trying on of suits for catmen in a B picture."
- MFB

"...The Bad and the Beautiful was a breakthrough: it opened up a potential for sudden insights in brilliantly regulated melodrama that was one of Minnelli's most fascinating assets."
- David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film

"Captivating Hollywood story...Solid, insightful, witty, with Lana's best performance ever....David Raksin's wonderful score is another asset."
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

"...Minnelli brings a tougher eye to his story of a young producer's meteoric rise and fall than most directors would have done, and the copious references to actual people/events anchor the melodrama in a spirit not unlike that of Sunset Boulevard [1950]....Fascinating as a companion piece to Two Weeks in Another Town [1962], which resumes the themes and some of the characters a decade late."
- Tony Rayns, TimeOut Film Guide

"...all the elements of The Bad and the Beautiful are top-drawer: the punchy dialogue, the noirish voiceover narration, Robert Surtees' chiaroscuro-heavy cinematography, the swoony David Raksin score, and especially the dynamic tone shifts of the triptych story. This is studio-system product at its juiciest and most sophisticated, full of insights into the mess behind the art."
- Noel Murray, The Onion A.V. Club

"Some critics have accused Minnelli of accepting the premise at face value, as if he is saying that career achievements are more important than personal relationships. Pauline Kael wrote that the film "is a piquant example of what it purports to expose." But Minnelli is neither that cold nor cynical. While it's true that the film does have a luxuriant façade, it also has enough scenes dealing ambiguously with the art/life dichotomy that Minnelli can't be accused of intentionally espousing such a specious view. And too there is nothing in the movie to suggest that an extreme example of this premise would be acceptable. It's not as if the film is recommending that Leni Riefenstahl should honor Adolf Hitler for financing two of her greatest films. Jonathan Shields is no Hitler, but the uncertainty of giving "the devil his due," as Pebbels points out, is the film's central concept."
- Matt Langdon, PopMatters

"Vincente Minnelli directed The Bad and the Beautiful adhering to the highest production values. The result is a slick package that is very satisfying to watch. Minnelli skillfully manages to avoid falling into a boring soap opera tale, despite the tabloid-like "tells all" script. Sets and costuming are brilliant. Black and white photography by Robert Surtees is impeccable and gives maximum impact to each scene, actually quite noirish and at times reminiscent of the innovative camera work in Citizen Kane."
- George Chabot, epinions.com

Compiled by Frank Miller