Big Knife

Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger & Shelley Winters Director: Robert Aldrich

DVD Features:

Audio:

• Dolby Digital Mono - English

Additional Release Material:

• Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer

Description by OLDIES.com:

Academy Award winners Jack Palance, Rod Steiger and Shelley Winters deliver knockout performances in this vicious "poison-pen letter to the movie business" (American Cinematique) that's an extreme close-up of greed, lust...and murder!

Hollywood superstar Charlie Castle (Palance) has it all...except a way out. When he tries to leave show business, his tyrannical studio boss Stanley Hoff (Steiger) blackmails him with a lethal, covered-up secret that could land him in jail. A loose-lipped starlet (Winters) also knows too much, and when she starts talking, Hoff plans murder. Now Charlie is more cornered than ever - on the brink of losing his wealth, his power...and his soul.

Product Description:

THE BIG KNIFE, adapted from Clifford Odets's gripping play, is a dark, cynical probing of the film industry's behemoth studio system. When matinee idol Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) refuses to renew his studio contract, his career begins to take a turn for the worse. As autocratic movie mogul Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger) stoops to blackmail to force him back onto the lot, Castle must also deal with being supported by his angry ex-wife, Marion (Ida Lupino). Director Robert Aldrich (THE DIRTY DOZEN) enfolds his critique of Hollywood's warped dream factory in a melancholic and mysterious psychodrama, and Palance is unnervingly convincing in the part of the washed-up Tinseltown star.

Plot Keywords:

Drama | Film Noir | Theatrical Release

Production Notes:

• Clifford Odets' play originally appeared on Broadway in 1949, with John Garfield in the leading role (taken by Jack Palance in the film).

Cast and Crew: