This film takes a cynical look at Hollywood during the heyday of the studio system (1930-1950). The main character, Jonathan Shields, is an independent producer reminiscent of such Hollywood moguls as David O. Selznick and Samuel Goldwyn. In showing how Shields interacts with a director (Fred Amiel), a writer (James Lee Barlow), and a star (Georgia Lorrison), the film comments on how the creative process, with its division of labor, worked under the studio regime. Of course, The Bad and the Beautiful is also a story of trust, inspiration, and betrayal; as a studio-derived, but semi-independent Hollywood production itself, it works as a powerful melodrama, one of the major genres of the period.
Consider what the film suggests about the Hollywood creative process. What role does the producer actually play in the overall success of the movies he makes? How is his work related to that of the director, the screenwriter, and the actors/actresses? How are creative disputes settled, and with what consequences? Consider also the particular ways in which filmmaking is described in the course of the film: e.g. in the making of the "Cat Men" movie (this incident is based upon the actual making of the film Cat People by producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur in 1942), and in the writing of the script for "Proud Land" (when Shields throws out most of Bartlow's text and replaces it with visual expression only).
Gloria Grahame won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this film.