Dull and boring. A movie about the movie making world and what they will do to cover up scandals among their best actors.I found the drama about the actor's marriage far too scattered and uninteresting. This film is supposed to show that some studio owners were evil greedy men making their stars produce garbage meaningless movies for money--using corrupted directors (gee what a surprise!). Also that this unfufilling career (producing kitch) leads to infidelity and marriage problems and robs the souls of the poor actors.Personally I would rather watch 99 River Street any day than this boring thing--all the studios would have gone bankrupt if they only produced these pseudo-intellectual masterpieces of boredom. An ugly now very dated looking French painting is supposed to symbolize the studio owners and of course the high culture and intelligence of the actor or rather his wife who bought it. PSEUDO-INTELLECTUALITY DEFINED.It drags it goes no where. It is talky with endless unemotive dialogue--in fact the scream when his wife finds his body--is the first non droning dialogue you hear--it made me jump. Shelley Winters is the most memorable actor for her short part where she is hopelessly dense and annoying.Watch things like 77 River Street...that is entertainment when things try to become too meaningful or artsy they flop..Several reviews say they let the actors control this entire movie allowing too much hamming and over-rehearsed stops (scenes).One last thing the tinny jazz soundtrack for this thing it was so bad it became irritating.DO NOT RECOMMEND

*Spoiler/plot- The Big Knife, 1955. A ten year established contract actor at a major studio feels like he's being mishandled by his studio. He wants to quit acting, but his contract is coming due for another seven years. He is put in a dilemma of conscience. The studio head tries to manipulate him, his family, career, and friend in a negative way for the studio's monetary interest. The actor is pushed to breaking point.*Special Stars- Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger, Everett Stone, Nick Cravat, Shelley Winters.*Theme- Contractual bondage for an idealist is a bad idea.*Trivia/location/goofs- Film Noir, Method Actors cast. The studio head role was patterned after Columbia and MGM studio heads, Cohen and Mayer. This film was blacklisted by all the major studios for it's anti-studio content. It came out during the 'contract actors' legal fight to break the studio system by Bettie Davis and other actors. Film plot supposedly based on a true story about secret collusion between studio heads(John Huston & Louis Mayer), media(Louella Parsons) against studio actors. Several possible examples are Thomas Ince's death aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht, the death of Jean Harlow's husband, the beating death of Ted Healy (recent stories allege Wallace Beery was responsible) Burt Lancaster(played in a similar subject matter film 'Sweet Smell of Success' '57) turned down the male lead role and John Garfield accepted but died by heart attack before shooting started. Shelley Winters dedicated her role to Garfield.*Emotion- This was a un-entertaining too static Method Actor melodramatic mish-moss. Weird miscasting for lead roles didn't help. The film title is crazy, too. It's a harsh message movie indictment on the studio contract players and draconian studio system. I have no problems with the actor's performance in either. But the fact 'The Big Knife' was shot like a locked down stage performance in essentially one house interior set made this film too static. It suffered greatly by constant plot and script referrals to dramatic incidents and people off camera. Therefore not pushing the script forward enough to make it dramatic & interesting. 'Sweet Smell' was more of a watchable interesting feature movie with all of the good production trimmings. The Big Knife leaves you confused, bored, and let down due to the films harsh ending.*Based On- Clifford Odets play.

This film is a thinly veiled discussion of various rumors about various big-name actors. Many times over the years, studio heads reportedly paid to bail big stars out of legal jams. And, while you can't prove exactly what happens, people talk and say that the studios paid people off and hid the crimes of its stars. A few examples of the cases which MAY have been covered up would include: Thomas Ince's death aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht, the death of Jean Harlow's husband, the beating death of Ted Healy (recent stories say Wallace Beery was responsible) and MANY other scandals too numerous to list here. It's like "The Big Knife" is trying to expose these scandals without being too specific--otherwise the filmmakers could have either been sued or blackballed. This film is a lot grittier and cynical than other previous films that look at the dark side of Hollywood (such as "What Price Hollywood?" and "A Star is Born")--and I am pretty sure the studio execs breathed a deep sigh of relief when "The Big Knife" failed at the box office! "The Big Knife" is not exactly what you'd expect given the film's title or that it's about a killing. You'd think it was an action film, but it isn't. In fact, the film is very non-action--with almost all of the film taking place in a guy's home--and often in just one or two rooms. The only action is when folks TALK about what has already happened or when the ego-centric main character shows his guests an old boxing film he made years earlier.Jack Palance plays Charles Castle--a famous movie star who has been making a lot of movies which, in his and other people's opinions, are beneath him. He's bored with these sort of films and unhappy about the state of his life. However, his divorce and the crap that the studio forces him into are all his own doing. He cheated on his wife repeatedly and as for the studio, there comes the interesting part of the film. Apparently, years before, Castle was driving drunk and killed someone. But, the studio's 'fixers' came in and got a guy to take the blame--and allowed their money-maker, Castle, to keep on making films. So, when Castle pushes the execs for better films, their ultimate trump card is to expose Castle's guilt in killing someone! He's stuck. At times, the viewer might be inclined to feel a bit sorry for him--but throughout the film he keeps reminding the viewer that down deep, he is a jerk--as are most of the folks in this film. And, just how big an amoral jerk he might be is tested when a fixer (Wendell Corey) has to take care of one more loose end...and wants Castle's help.For the most part, this is a very good film. Palance and the rest (particularly Corey) are very good. There is one exception, however. While Everett Sloane was a wonderful actor, here he is oddly miscast. Seeing him play an agent and saying 'darling' all the time to Palance just didn't seem believable in the least. They really needed someone oilier--someone who could just drip fake charm--though he WAS very good later in the film during his big scene (at about 90 minutes into the movie). I might have enjoyed seeing someone like, perhaps, Zachary Scott in this part--as he could ooze snake-like charm. Apart from this minor problem, the film delivers--with a resounding indictment on the sleazy dark side of the film industry. It also really helps that the film ended as well as it did--the finale is impressive. Well worth seeing provided you don't mind that the action is all on the cerebral side and not in the great outdoors.

The Hollywood studio system is the villain, personified by studio boss Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger), in this rather one-note film starring Jack Palance as Charles Castle, a put-upon "movie star" who wants out of the industry. Trouble is, Hoff insists that Charles sign a seven-year contract, and uses a scandal from Castle's past to pressure him to sign.Based on a stage play, the nearly two hour film takes place almost entirely in the living room of Castle's home. As such, the film feels very boxed in, like the characters are in some kind of cage. The camera is quite static. There is nothing interesting about the B&W cinematography. And the amount of dialogue is huge. Indeed, about all that characters do in this film is ... talk. They argue, discuss, complain, threaten, cajole, fume, reminisce, and pontificate. Conflict is entirely verbal, and leads to enormous melodrama.In a movie like this, what counts are the dialogue, casting, and acting. In "The Big Knife", there's too much dialogue, some of which is exposition. But in the second half, the dialogue does create some twists that make the story fairly interesting. Also, the film's title is so trite it sounds like something an eight-year-old would come up with.Rod Steiger is well cast as the villain, and his performance, though over the top, at least entertains. Palance tries hard, but is dreadfully miscast. He does not come across as the leading man that women swoon over, as the dialogue implies. And some of the secondary characters seem unnecessary to the story.There's some background music but not much. Ambient sounds are minimal owing to the interior setting. Costumes are largely irrelevant. Set design is adequate.Whether the viewer finds this film worth watching will depend on his or her affinity to the characters and their drama, and the viewer's preference for, or tolerance of, an enormously talky script and claustrophobic interior setting.