The success of The Bad and the Beautiful pointed the way to other trenchant views of Hollywood life, including the 1954 re-make of A Star Is Born, The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and The Big Knife (1955).

Contemporary critics have added other names and incidents to the speculation about inspirations for The Bad and the Beautiful. Producer David O. Selznick's arguments with George Cukor during the filming of Gone with the Wind (1939) have been compared to Jonathan Shields' (Kirk Douglas) arguments with his director during the making of The Proud Land. Others have suggested the German director, Von Ellstein, is modeled on Edward Von Stroheim and writer James Lee Bartlow is inspired by William Faulkner.

In 1962, producer John Houseman, director Vincente Minnelli and Douglas reunited in an attempt to do for international filmmaking what The Bad and the Beautiful had done for Hollywood. Two Weeks in Another Town, although poorly reviewed at the time, has become a favorite of Minnelli enthusiasts. Scenes from The Bad and the Beautiful turn up in the film when the characters view a movie in a screening room.

The film's title was spoofed in the 1974 DePatie-Freleng cartoon The Badge and the Beautiful.

by Frank Miller