Written and reviewed by Larry Gleeson throughout the annual TCM 31 Days of Oscar
The Dangerous and the Lovely (1952), directed by Vincente Minelli and music by David Raskin, tells the story of an formidable producer, Jonathan Shields, portrayed by Kirk Douglas. Minelli makes use of flashbacks with voice over narration from the people who had labored with Shields; author James Lee Bartlow, portrayed by Dick Powell, a star Georgia Lorrison, portrayed by Hollywood starlet, Lana Turner, and a director Fred Amiel, portrayed by Barry Sullivan.
Apparently, The Dangerous and The Lovely appears to loosely imitate Akira Kurasowa’s Rashomon, winner of the 1951 Golden Lion, the highest prize on the oldest and one of the vital prestigious movie festivals on the earth. The movie world was taken awestruck by Kurasowa’s work and elegance. Moreover, using the voice-over-narration, particularly within the first act of The Dangerous and The Lovely, Minelli employs the method in a vogue intently resembling Billy Wilder’s use in Double Indemnity.
Whereas The Dangerous and The Lovely is usually considered a drama, I argue it’s on the cusp of being a melodrama with the stereotypical characters, exaggerated feelings, and simplistic plot. Raskin’s musical rating is spectacular, and it helps the musical types in melodramas resembling Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Permits. What units The Dangerous and The Lovely aside is its cinematography by Robert Surtees, A.S.C., a three-time Oscar winner for Greatest Cinematography [King Solomon’s Mines (1951), The Bad and The Beautiful (1952), Ben Hur, 1960)]. However, even the New York Occasions movie critic, Bosley Crowther supplies a melodramatic opening to his evaluation:
“The broadly circulated notion that there are monsters in Hollywood, apart and aside fully from the grim and ghoulish get of Frankenstein, is given unqualified endorsement, with no reservations and no holds barred, in Metro’s “The Dangerous and the Lovely,”…
Again to the movie. After the start credit roll with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas obtain high billing – in that order, the movie transitions to black and a diegetic ringing is heard. The opening body is of a solitary black rotary telephone, the digicam slowly pulls out as a person in a grey go well with strikes in the direction of the telephone and solutions it. In the meantime, the digicam continues to drag out to a excessive angle “god shot” revealing a row of sunshine stands unfold out throughout the highest of a giant shelving equipment above the telephone.
The person solutions the telephone with, “Stage 5…Mr. Amiel’s on a digicam increase rehearsing proper now.” The movie cuts to a transferring elevated carry (increase) mounted with a digicam, and Mr. offering path. Additionally, a complete crew comes into body because the increase strikes in for an in depth up of a blonde-haired lady in a vertical place. Amiel directs the lady to maneuver her hand up round her throat. The grey-suited man comes into body with the telephone saying, “transatlantic, Paris, Jonathan Defend calling you. the digicam strikes right into a tight-medium body shot revealing a studio digicam and Mr. Amiel working it. Amiel doesn’t take the decision and as a substitute calls out path for the subsequent shot.
In my view, that is the movie’s overwhelming power. Minelli supplies the viewer with an inside take a look at how movies have been made within the 1950’s and the people who find themselves concerned within the filmmaking course of – every part from tales to scripts, producing, financing, make up, costuming, directing, and successfully dealing with the sensitivities of Hollywood stars within the period. The movie is shot in black and white which helps with the concept of ethical enterprise ethics – one of many underlying themes of The Dangerous and the Lovely. Stylistically, the movie may be very straightforward on the eyes with terrific lighting, engaging and alluring actors, and attention-grabbing mise-en-scen. Very warmly beneficial, until you’re a Lana Turner fan, then it’s extremely beneficial!
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