The Film Junkie

A melodramatic dirty little love letter to Hollywood.

Vincente Minnelli had plenty of fodder for his film that picks apart the loves and motives of a producer, director, star and writer as their lives intersect.  The producer is a Machiavellian climber played with considerable vigour by Kirk Douglas.  He loves and leaves a starlet played by Lana Turner, who he also helps break of her drinking habit to get her through a film.  He disposes of his director buddy (Barry Sullivan) when a bigger name comes along.  Finally Shields has a hand in killing the wife (the incomparable Gloria Grahame who won an Oscar for this role) of a writer (Dick Powell).  Shields fights his way to the top, but upon his downfall he finds that his own ego has left him next to nothing.

Minnelli was famously married to Judy Garland from 1945-1951, producing the child Liza Minnelli, and many saw him as intrumental in getting the heavily addicted Garland through ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’ (1944) and ‘The Pirate’ (1948), the latter of which she was completely incoherent while making because of Minnelli romance with her co-star Gene Kelly (if you can find this film it is an interesting look at how a performance can be pieced together from nothing).  He also worked with the famously Machiavellian producer Arthur Freed and perfectionist director Busby Berkeley (who coincidentally helped get Garland addicted th pills when she was a teenager).  Traces of each of these characters are apparent throughout the film and some of the fun of watching this film is guessing which situations and people Minnelli is truly depicting.

This is a great campy black and white drama that clarifies that Hollywood has always been as maddening as it is now, we had just forgotten.

Grade: A-