Some screenplays are simply unfilmable, and even if they are filmable, become laughable because the acting simply becomes banal either through over-direction or misguided emotions by actors trying too hard. In the case of this supposed follow-up to "The Bad and the Beautiful", the first "B" in that title, certainly fits, not the second. It's an embarrassment on all levels with such talents as Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton and especially Claire Trevor chewing up every word of the dialog. It's a major shame to have Trevor pretty much vomit every line she says as if she was getting revenge on Robinson for mistreating her in "Key Largo".The story is difficult to figure out from the very beginning with everybody ranting and raving at Kirk Douglas for being a has-been drunk actor, and the efforts director Robinson makes to get the movie completed. To make matters worse, a clip from "The Bad and the Beautiful" is used, showing how things went from an outstanding piece of art where everything came together, to this huge house of cards where a sudden gust of wind came along, making the entire deck impossible to put back together again. Luxurious photography can't hide the fact that what is actually present on the screen is probably one of the most confusing pieces of trash ever committed on celluloid. Even director Vincent Minnelli's final film, the major flop "A Matter of Time", outshines this one in spades.While film history resources indicate that rash editing lead to the film's failure, the script is also filled with massive inconsistencies, utilizing sudden psychotic mood swings in many scenes for pretty much every character. The film is practically impossible to get through, a sad example of so much talent tossed together in what really comes out to be a compost heap. The film also touches on the perverted, such as a scene where the aging Robinson appears to be being fondled by an Italian starlet (while harpy wife Trevor rants and raves like a patient from a nut house). The worst slap in the face comes for poor Trevor, playing one of the most hateful characters on-screen, only rivaled by the vile nasty rich wife that Eleanor Parker played in "An American Dream", another dreadful disaster made just a couple of years later. This one, however, could be called Vincent Minnelli's "An Italian Nightmare".

What could be considered the sequel to the classic The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) can be dismissed as trashy and overwrought but this movie has more than enough gusto, imagination and directorial brilliance than its poor rating on IMDb suggests. First, is the excellent performance by Kirk Douglas. His portrayal of a once famous star reduced to alcoholism and madness is very well observed. His physical frailty and stiffness of movement counter-act his past reputation as an overbearing egotistical bully. He cannot be violent any more because his body will not allow it.Another performance of note is by Edward G. Robinson. Showing what a remarkable actor he could be, the moment where he lies in bed complaining of the pain being "like a harpoon" is utterly convincing. Claire Trevor is superb as the annoying, bitchy, emotional crippled and paranoid wife. Trevor, as always, is nothing short of brilliant!!Vincente Minnelli is one of the greatest directors to ever work in Hollywood. With Two Weeks in Another Town his mark is made early with the use of a powerful musical score that on its own may be nothing remarkable but playing with the extraordinary images really brings the excitement and intensity of the movie to the foreground. An example of the use of music and image to perfectly compliment each other is during the final climax where Kirk Douglas, mad with jealously and drink, drives his car on a suicidal rampage. This sequence is pure cinema. The car is clearly shot in a studio with the camera moving around it like the eye of an insane god. The back projection of moving walls, roads and trees are used in expressionistic style and often the back projection is simply omitted altogether for smoke and blackness. The dramatic music and wild screams add to the insanity of the sequence. This is Vincente Minnelli effortlessly proving his command of the medium.Another bravura moment of direction is when Douglas walks into a hotel lift, only to have his nemesis, the beautiful and hedonistic Carlotta played with Cyd Charisse walk in after him. Any other director would have inserted a reaction shot of Kirk Douglas but Vincente Minnelli waits depriving the audience of the shot they expect to see until she arrives at her floor and walks out of the lift. Brilliant.Vincente Minnelli even tries to bend the fourth wall by having Kirk Douglas bemoan the acting profession and berate the audience that sits in the dark watching moving pictures. Technically Minnelli does not break the forth wall but the effect is that suddenly the audience has become a character in the story and for a moment is forced to think of themselves outside the context of the movie. Brilliant yet I assume the studio hated such radicalism.Yes, there are some faults in this movie and it is easy to dismiss this work as flashy and trashy but that is missing the point because there is more than enough pure film-making in this movie to satisfy any real movie fan.

Imagine a film with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, George Hamilton, Cyd Charisse and Claire Trevor being miserable. It's hard to believe but it's true.The best scenes are when we see clips of Douglas's 1952 "The Bad and the Beautiful." That was a picture.This garbage deals with Douglas as an actor getting over suicide and being brought to Rome to work for director Robinson. There he meets his ex-wife Carlotta, played in a whore-like manner by Ms. Charisse. She is way out of her league in this one but her days of dancing with Fred Astaire were long gone.Interesting to see the teaming of Robinson and Trevor, this time as man and wife. They made such a great duo 14 years before in Trevor's Oscar-winning gem "Key Largo." As was the case with the latter, Trevor is once again a drunkard but with no reason as she had in 'Largo.'The picture is a rip-off of "The Sun Also Rises" as it deals with emotionally unbalanced people. At age 22, George Hamilton, as an actor, is already over the hill.Douglas wants to reenact his hitting of a wall this time in Rome as he had done in L.A. during his drunken suicide attempt. He and the others really hit the wall by making this awful film.

I think that your opinion of this movie will be strongly influenced depending on whether or not you first saw THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. I tried watching this film before I saw the prequel and got tired of it and stopped watching. However, a few months later I saw the first film and then saw TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN. Then, it all made sense to me,...how the horribly manipulative jerk in THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL slid over the years into the pathetic has-been in this film. I really liked it, as everyone hate ample reason to both hate the lead character, Douglas, and to thank him for their success. A pretty deep film and a perfect follow-up.