Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) User Reviews

Love that title!

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 11 August 2006]

You gotta love the title "Two Weeks in Another Town." It's fabulous. As for the movie...it's a big budget, sprawling color extravaganza that's either a sequel or a prequel to "The Bad and the Beautiful" depending upon whom you speak to. Kirk Douglas stars as Jack, a has-been, alcoholic actor who, fresh from the asylum, is summoned to Rome by his guru, the director Maurice Kruger (Edward G. Robinson). Also in Rome is the wife that drove Jack into an alcoholic stupor, the seductive Carlotta (Cyd Charisse). Initially all Jack is to do is direct the dubbing of Kruger's film so he can finish on time and satisfy the Italian producer - but things become more involved.

I can't agree with one comment that this is the veiled story of Tyrone Power, Linda Christian, and Darryl F. Zanuck, with circumstances changed to protect the guilty. Certainly the promiscuity aspects are similar; Ty took up with Anita Ekberg, magazine editor Mary Roblee, etc., and Linda, well-known for her exploits like the Cyd Charisse character, had an affair with Edmund Purdom. And Power was certainly tied to Zanuck. However, the story is pretty Hollywood generic; one could probably make the case for other actors' marriages and connection to directors and/or producers.

"Two Weeks" is also way over the top, which is what Minnelli intended: old Roman gluttony. It's a feast of scenery, big acting, and a wild, dramatic story, which peaks with Douglas and Charisse in a fast car careening through Rome.

Kirk Douglas is great as an actor returning to his past, only to find there's nothing there of use. Robinson turns in a excellent performance as a tough yet insecure director who cheats on his emotionally abusive and abused wife yet depends on her like a child its mother. Trevor as the wife is appropriately hurt, angry, and downright vicious. George Hamilton plays an up and coming actor - as one comment noted, this is a stretch; he doesn't really register. Charisse gets costar billing but doesn't have much to do but laugh evilly, wear glamorous clothes, and look seductive. She succeeds.

"Two Weeks in Another Town" is certainly worth a look, though it was hard for this viewer to connect with any of the characters. I think it stands alone as neither a prequel or sequel to "The Bad and the Beautiful" as a story of what it's like to make films in another time - and in another town.

Don't forget George Macready!!

[bowiebks · 7/10 · 18 December 2006]

No one has mentioned the magnificent performance of George Macready as the agent, nor the devastating scene near the beginning of the film where he and Douglas have a chance encounter at an airport. To put it politely, in that scene Macready takes Douglas to task for past failures...it is one of the most brutal bits in all film history. Macready always knew how to make his mark, no matter how small the role! I recently enjoyed seeing him in his third film, The Story of Doctor Wassell, where he had a very small part as a Dutch army officer...striking and vivid, and that smooth chilly voice of his has never been equaled in all of filmdom.

The Ups and Downs of Film making

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 8 March 2006]

Trying to repeat their success in The Bad and the Beautiful with the same studio MGM, director Vincent Minnelli and actor Kirk Douglas give another go at the fabulous world of film making. This time though MGM sprung for color and a location shooting in Rome, the other town the title is referring to.

If Tyrone Power were alive he might have sued MGM because I believe Kirk Douglas's character of Jack Andrus is based on him and the relationship he had with producer Darryl Zanuck and second wife Linda Christian. In her days Linda was quite the party animal, as much as Cyd Charisse portrays here.

The Zanuck character is a director named Maurice Krueger played by Edward G. Robinson. Changing him from a producer to a director probably saved a whole lot of legal fees.

Very simply the plot is that washed up film actor Douglas who is in a high priced alcoholic asylum as the film opens receives an offer from his former director Robinson to come to Rome to help him with a film that threatens to run behind schedule. Douglas comes to Rome and becomes quite indispensible to Robinson, especially after Robinson suffers a heart attack and Douglas has to finish the film.

His hedonistic ex-wife Charisse is also in Rome among many other temptations. It all works out for Douglas, but not quite in the way he would have thought.

Best performance in the film in my opinion is that of Claire Trevor who is Robinson's shrewish wife, based very much on Darryl Zanuck's wife Virginia.

According to the Films of Kirk Douglas, both Minnelli and Douglas were disappointed in how the film turned out. It certainly doesn't measure up to The Bad and the Beautiful. Douglas blamed it on a botched editing job. That maybe so, but my own opinion is that the Code was still in place in 1962 and maybe had this been done ten years later, certain things could have been made far more explicit to the audiences.

Two Weeks in Another Town is still quite a curiosity, catch it if you can.

trash masterpiece

[swisener · 1 September 2004]

Vincente Minnelli's film version bears little resemblance to Irwin Shaw's novel of the same name, not that there's anything wrong with that. This movie belongs on the second half of a double feature with "The Carpetbaggers" as a guilty pleasure I can't resist watching. It spoofs the difficulties American directors had in making quality movies overseas when European producers expressed no interest in quality, only profit. This is a lesser alternative to Fellini's "8 1/2" and Godard's "Contempt," which explored the same theme, and its trashiness is expressed perfectly with footage from "The Bad and the Beautiful," another Minnelli-Douglas collaboration. Favorite line, Edward G. Robinson to Douglas regarding George Hamilton: "He's crazier on the loose than you were locked up."

The bad and the beautiful (continued)

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 30 December 2004]

A film of love and hate.Between the fallen actor and his aging director;between the director and his hysterical wife;between Carlotta and her former husband;between the young actor and the old one.In a nutshell, an intense melodrama in the vein of these Minnelli extravaganzas ("some came running" "home from the hill" and particularly "the four horsemen of the Apocalypse" -remember the famous scene where the whole family is gathered around the table while a storm is raging-).

Minnelli had already broached Hollywood before in "the bad and the beautiful" the ending of which was one of the most ferocious I know.Excerpts of this 1952 work are used here with stunning results.Douglas watching himself when he was supposed to be young and famous recalls Gloria Swanson watching her silent movies (with her former director Von Stroheim now her butler) in "Sunset Boulevard".

But it's Cinecitta now.A new Italian cinema is rising and Minnelli is aware of that.He had probably seen Fellini's and Antonioni's works and their influence emerge sometimes:Rosanna Schiaffino 's character reminds me of Anita Eksberg in "la dolce vita";the posh receptions have an Antonioni atmosphere("la notte").On the other hand,Douglas's mad drive might have influenced Fellini for his segment of "spirits of the dead" ,"Tobby Dammit" (1968).

But if the movie has a message ,it's this one:If you want somebody you can trust ,trust yourself.Stop hiding in the movie theaters (or in the films),as Douglas's character says to Schiaffino on the beach ,and get a life!

Great Entertaining Film

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 16 December 2006]

If you liked the "Bad & The Beautiful" with Kirk Douglas,( Jack Andrus) this picture is pretty close to the same story line, however, there is plenty of color, drama and romance. Great actors appear in this film, Edward G. Robinson,(Maurice Kruger), "The Red House" puts his heart and soul into the role and yells and screams his head off as a big shot movie director. Kirk Douglas still plays the role as an abusive drinker who is reformed and is placed in some rather difficult situations from actor to assistant director. Cyd Charisse, (Charlotta) adds plenty of sexy charm to the various scenes and George Hamilton, (Davie Drew) gives a great supporting role. For some reason over the years, I seemed to have missed viewing this film and found it quite enjoyable and also seeing how very young all the actors appeared in 1962. Enjoy

good follow-up to THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 March 2006]

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.

A real botch, albeit fun to look at

[marcslope · 6/10 · 12 January 2016]

Vincente Minnelli tries to go all hyper-modern in this widescreen adaptation of an Irwin Shaw novel, which I hope made more sense. Washed-up actor Kirk Douglas, all clenched teeth and dimple, is let out of the loony bin to rescue a faltering big-budget movie in Rome being directed by a manipulative, but somehow pitiable, Edward G. Robinson. Unsympathetic supporting characters abound: Douglas's awful ex-wife (Cyd Charisse, looking great and giving rather good shrew), Robinson's hysterical spouse (Claire Trevor, who is, for perhaps the only time in her life, dreadful), an insecure method actor (an OK George Hamilton), a starlet inexplicably drawn to Douglas (Daliah Levi, all bust). The histrionics, including a wild and wildly unbelievable Douglas-cracking-up-at-the-wheel car scene, are entertaining, but that the whole thing could somehow end happily is ludicrous. What's fun are the Rome trappings, with Douglas's fabulous car, the gowns, the locations, and some imaginative use of the wide screen. Also, some attractive old-Hollywood rumblings from composer David Raskin. Not one for the ages, but worth a look.

Bad and Beautiful in Rome

[helenkmessler · 10/10 · 29 May 2006]

Starts with Kirk Douglas in a nut house, isn't that just perfect? He is allowed out to take over an American movie in trouble being shot on location in Rome - well that's beyond perfection - And a total guarantee of 100 or so minutes of decadent splendor. The director and his wife, played at the edge of the abyss, by Edward G Robinson and Claire Trevor deserve a film of their own. Douglas does his thing as if we had never seen it before and thank God for that because it works in the most satisfying way. Minnelli knew what he was doing and those modern Roman parties with the glittering Italian aristocrats is out of a Fellini film. Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton and Vito Scotti are also part of this tabloid tale told by a master. Highly recommended.

Life Imitates Art Imitating Art?

[Bob-45 · 7/10 · 19 December 2006]

Despite an abrupt, overwrought climax and less than stellar performances by two key players, "Two Weeks in Another Town" is a fine inside look at the politics of movie making. Comparisons can be made to "The Bad and the Beautiful" (indeed, scenes from that film are included), also starring Kirk Douglas. However, Douglas is even better here than in the earlier film, giving possibly the best, most carefully nuanced performances of his career. Equally strong are Edward G. Robinson, playing a washed up director, Claire Trevor as Robinson's hysterical, shrewish wife and Daliah Lavi, making a star-caliber screen debut. Unfortunately, the studio saddled director Vincente Minnelli with an insipid George Hamilton and an incompetent Cyd Charisse. One can only imagine how much better "Two Weeks …" would be with Richard Chamberlain playing the Hamilton role and Lana Turner, Eleanor Parker, Barbara Rush or Tina Louise playing Charisse's.

"Two Weeks …" is carefully paced until the final act, which is so rushed it becomes almost surreal, and almost undone in the process. Reportedly, Douglas blamed the editing, which seems likely, given Minnelli's earlier, carefully crafted work. One cannot help but wonder whether "Two Weeks …" hit "too close to home" for some studio professionals, and was sabotaged. In this case, without giving away too much, this would be a perfect example of "life imitates art imitating art." "Two Weeks …" is certainly too melodramatic to garner a "10"; but, it could have been an "8". As it sits, however, "Two Weeks in Another Town" deserves a "7" due to the strong performances and very strong first two thirds.

Over-the-Top...and then some...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 5/10 · 19 November 2001]

Few movies contain so much talent and end up being as ridiculous as TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN. Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, George Hamilton, and Cyd Charisse head the cast as decadent Hollywood types in Rome to make a movie. What that movie's about is anyone's guess, but the melodrama played out behind the scenes is an over-the-top train wreck directed by the great Vincente Minnelli. The out of control drive through the streets of Rome by Douglas and Charisse is priceless. Trevor, pulling out all the stops as Robinson's shrike of a wife, reprises her drunken blowser role from KEY LARGO. Hamilton plays an actor (a very real stretch that he does NOT pull off). James Gregory, George McCready, and Daliah Lavi are in it too. A camp classic.

The Sweet Life

[mmallon4 · 10/10 · 2 January 2019]

Two Weeks In Another Town is the spiritual successor to the previous filmmaking based melodrama The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), also starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Vincente Minnelli. The Bad and the Beautiful even gets an appearance within Two Weeks In Another Town in which Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas) gloats over the film during a screening not quite unlike Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard ("Loved it, thought I was great!"). Ultimately, I have to rank Two Weeks In Another Town as a more interesting and far more re-watchable film than The Bad and the Beautiful.

It's always interesting to watch such lavish Hollywood productions from this period in the early to mid-1960s knowing that the Hollywood and filmmaking landscape would be almost unrecognizable by the end of the decade. TWIAT, for example, makes widespread use of the classic rear car projection shot which so identified with Hollywood's golden age but not for much longer. The film offers a behind the scenes look at the on-set filmmaking process and even the post-production side of things with a whole scene alone focusing on dubbing the fictional film within the film. TWIAT was filmed in Cinecitta Studios in Rome (Hollywood on the Tiber as it was referred to due to the large number of American productions shot there) which doubles as the movie's setting.

Aside from his musicals Vincente Minelli could craft a fine, lush and riveting melodrama and had a unique touch and style he brought to his films despite being a studio-bound director. TWIAT has just the right mixture glamour, decadent escapism, camp and a hint of trash along with the beautiful scoring courtesy of David Raskin. What is a melodrama if it doesn't begin in a mental hospital or contain obvious use of symbolism such as Jack driving into a waterfall to signify his rebirth? Camerawork, on the other hand, is something which tends to stick out in Minelli's films and the camerawork here is no less fluid as it follows actors from one room to another. There is one particularly memorable shot in which Jack walks into the elevator and the camera somewhat metamorphosises into becoming his point of view.

Hollywood's veteran directors would have been as old as Edward G. Robinson by 1962 in the role of Maurice Kruger. In 1962 Robinson had his two best roles in years, both in films about the industry itself. TWIAT was the third pairing of Robinson and Claire Trevor and their role as a married couple is tragic as it is evident there is still some resemblance of love between this frustrated filmmaker and his hysterical old hag of a wife. It's almost comical in her introductory scene, as riveting as Trevor's performance is as she screams and follows her husband around their hotel suite accusing him of adultery as he walks around paying zero attention to her - he's just that used to it. Adding to the cast is also Cyd Charisse who gives an entertaining if albeit shallow performance as Jack's gold-digging ex-wife. She isn't given much to do in the film other than being a man-eater but it's fun to watch none the less.

TWIAT also acts as a good travelogue for Rome at night and offers a look at the city's nightlife with one of my favourite shots in the movie being Kirk Douglas and Daliah Lavi overlooking the city at twilight as the sky is blood red; absolutely gorgeous. Also, Italians seem to know what to wear as every bit player and extra on screen is dressed so dam well.

kicking Hollywood where it hurts for the second time

[didi-5 · 7/10 · 15 January 2009]

Ten years after 'The Bad and the Beautiful', director Vincente Minnelli and star Kirk Douglas return to another expose of Tinseltown. This time, Douglas plays a washed-up film star who has been in a sanatorium but is now well enough to heed the summons of old 'friend' and director Kruger (Edward G Robinson) who is offering him a plum new role.

But going back means meeting his former wife Carlotta (Cyd Charisse), and a younger version of himself (Davie Drew, played by George Hamilton), while squaring up to Kruger and his acerbic wife Clara (Claire Trevor) again to save his professional life.

This film is in colour where 'The Bad and ...' was black and white, so it makes an interesting contrast as well as a companion piece. Douglas is excellent again, in a slightly more likable part than in the earlier film, while Robinson and Trevor have enough screen time on their own to make their characters fascinating. Charisse is a viper in fine furs - good to see what she moved into once she stopped dancing on screen.

Seems More Like Two years

[blankenshipdk · 3/10 · 30 August 2016]

I first viewed this movie upon its initial release while I was in elementary school in a small West Virginia town where there was one theater and one drive-in meaning limited choices and frequent luck of the draw in terms of movie selection. This was probably the most boring film I ever saw in my youth although my parents also described the film as terrible and pondered the question of what it was even about. Decades passed, maturation happened along with some possible sophistication so I thought I would give this movie another shot, after all, what does a hick family from the hills know about cinema? The second viewing was more enlightening in making the movie appear dull, self indulgent, cheesy, melodramatic and essentially baffling in addition to my previous assessment of it as boring. Glossy slick color envelops the unlikable characters who spend most of their time bitch slapping and yelling at each other. Kirk Douglas and Edward G Robinson are apparently involved in some sort of love-hate relationship that merely seems schizophrenic as opposed to complex. While the story does show Kirk with a leave of absence from a nut house, he mostly seems angry rather than mental. He gets to go to Italy for a $10K per week paycheck ( in 1962 dollars ), a Maserati 3500 Spyder Vignale rag top ( which has a back story that's more interesting than this movie ) and then meets Daliah Lavi as a love interest and that's enough to make anyone mad. Hey, I wanted a stick, not an automatic dammit! Apparently much of the angst is sourced to Cyd Charisse who provided the only entertaining segment of the film when she's throws herself around like a bag of groceries while Kirk's eyes bug out behind the wheel in an ostensible moment of lunacy. Steering like a madman in front of a backdrop of a previously filmed gyrating landscape, the scene is intended to suggest frenzied, maniacal, out of control speed, yet comes off as laughable. I issued a spoiler alert although I'm not sure that's an applicable concept to a film that has no point to begin with. As far as movies are concerned, this flick had a really cool car.

Minnelli! Madness!! Mayhem!!!

[gregcouture · 21 April 2003]

I hadn't seen this one since its theatrical release and note that it's not available on video. But Turner Classic Movies unearthed it a while ago, letter-boxed as it deserves and as they so reliably do with widescreen titles.

No one was better than Minnelli when it came to taking pure "camp" elements and turning them into the kind of cinematic excess that had to be seen to be believed. This one is a prime example. As a Cyd Charisse devotee, I wasn't even disappointed that she didn't get to unfurl those legendary legs and dance across the CinemaScope screen. Made up, coiffed and gowned to look like Delphine Seyrig in "Last Year at Marienbad"(1961), she looks exactly like the sort of vamp who could drive Kirk Douglas to absolute distraction. With Claire Trevor, at her best, sparring bitterly with the immortal Edward G. Robinson; George Hamilton doing an earnest impression of a Method actor (none too good, I'll agree); and Leslie Uggams crooning a siren song whilst reclining amidst the ladies of the evening in a deluxe Roman brothel...well! It just HAS to be seen to be (dis)believed! Luvved it!

"You're back in the picture business, Son".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 10 March 2016]

If you stop and really think about the picture, it's one scalding indictment of celebrity life and phony stardom, the carving up of one's life by managers, agents, writers and whoever else can get their grubby hands on the one who's currently in the limelight. The picture, though often brilliantly filmed in lavish color, is cynical and dark, with twisted and duplicitous characters, and doesn't leave you feeling all that cheerful even with the manufactured happy ending.

That scene when director Maurice Kruger (Edward G. Robinson) unloaded on his wife Clara (Claire Trevor) was really something wasn't it? If you're contemplating divorce you might want to borrow from the man's vocabulary describing his lawful wedded nightmare as a 'worn out, dried up, whining, meddling old hag'. I think that just about covers it, don't you think? Well good old Clara returned the favor at the post-film wrap pretty nicely, drove the old guy into a heart attack. Put these folks on the guest list for your next party, should be a smash.

Washed up actor Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas) also has some interesting insights into the human condition as befits his also ran status - "Anybody can live with anybody", but the better one that frames the entire story is when he laments "How can a man go wrong and not know why"? Seems like everyone was going wrong here, as Jack's fling with Veronica What's the Difference (Dahlia Lavi) offered a measure of solace for the brief amount of time he put in finishing Kruger's picture.

Considering the principals involved, and I haven't even considered them all here, this had the makings of a stellar flick, and it wasn't all that bad really, but it will just leave you stunned, especially after Jack's thrill ride with ex-wife Carlotta (Cyd Charisse). One more character that lived up to Kruger's description of the fairer sex - "All women are just pure monster".

Sound off

[nancybw · 7/10 · 31 March 2021]

A ridiculous, overblown travesty. Douglas is laughable and Hamilton is worse. The episode with the screeching, swooping sports car toward the end is just awful. But if you watch it with the sound off it's a beautiful mid-century modern masterpiece.

Sadly Ironic Depiction of a Declining Hollywood

[fwhichard-344-426261 · 7/10 · 4 April 2021]

I am sure true cinephiles with any understanding of the Hollywood films from the "Golden Years" will appreciate and share in the sadness I felt while watching this film. Both Edward G Robinson and Kirk Douglas, two mega stars in their respective eras, still shine here, perfectly cast as "hasbeens" on the declining slope of their careers, riding the downward spiral of a declining Hollywood. For me, the entire film is a nod to a passing time, a farewell story, a death tale of the Hollywood that once was. The scene where Robinson and Douglas sing "Auld Lang Syne" sums up the film for me.

I still don't know what to think of this

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 2 January 2016]

I've watched this film twice, and I still don't know quite what to think of it.

On the one hand, it has Edward G. Robinson as a co-star in a film where he's not a gangster. That's something I always look forward to. And it has Kirk Douglas in what I feel is a rather strong performance. Another plus.

But on the other hand, it has a script that seems to cluttered with subplots, which makes the whole film seem a bit hectic. It also has what must be one of the poorest performances I've ever seen -- by George Hamilton. It has Cyd Charisse in a film that proves she was a better dancer than actor, although she doesn't dance in this film (if you get my drift). Claire Trevor is also along as an over the hill wife; she is "okay", but nothing more.

The plot: Kirk Douglas plays an former big star who, due to alcoholism and a nervous breakdown, can't even get supporting roles. Edward G. Robinson plays an old film director who once was a mentor to Douglas, and who now needs him in Italy to help him on the technical end of film-making. George Hamilton plays a very problematic young actor. Robinson and his wife (Trevor) have a marriage which is on the rocks. Douglas falls in love with the same young actress whom Hamilton loves. It looks as if an Italian company will grab away the film due to going overtime when Robinson has a heart attack. They're all going to live happily ever after -- even the heart attack victim. Or will they? There's a great scene where Cyd Charisse gets put in her place, but shortly after that the very ending of the film is just too "quick" to be at all satisfying.

I'm going to give this film an "average" grade, although I still have reservations.

Brilliant

[theognis-80821 · 9/10 · 9 June 2021]

Remarkably, many great or excellent directors have done their best work making movies about making movies or about Hollywood: Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard), Robert Aldrich (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? The Big Knife, The Legend of Lylah Clare), Robert Altman (The Player), Jerry Lewis (The Errand Boy), Richard Rush (The Stuntman), Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood), Blake Edwards (S. O. B.), and, in Europe, Fellini (8 and a Half), Truffaut (Day for Night) and Godard (Contempt). Vincente Minelli mines the world explored earlier in "The Bad And The Beautiful," with many of the same collaborators: Kirk Douglas, John Houseman, Charles Schnee and David Raksin, this time with less sentimentality and much harder edges. His use of visual symbolism may only have been exceeded by Erich von Stroheim, whose son is the A. D. and has his largest and final role in this movie, an apt inclusion for a movie about a city without a heart. It begins with Douglas as Jack Andrus, an actor with a scar on his face from an auto accident, a mental patient speaking with his pipe-smoking psychiatrist; in the next scene, he slaps the pipe out of the mouth of an actor, George Macready, with a real scar from a real auto accident. Andrus's barely controlled rage and self-loathing forms the core of the character, but his journey toward liberation sweeps others along. The portrayal of the marriage between Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor is vivid and amusing, especially when he discourages her from killing herself, an act committed by screenwriter Charles Schnee's wife a few months before this film's release. The script is beautifully structured and the exposition is introduced brilliantly. The practical problems of making a movie are accurately presented. This is easily the finest melodrama of Minelli's career.

Not a Good Musical. A Bad Melodrama

[SixtusXLIV · 6/10 · 13 August 2012]

Vincente Minnelli made some of the best musical movies ever. He also fathered LIsa Minnelli. He was a womanizer of a peculiar type, one that loved women of a stronger personality than His own. In the Musical this is an advantage, The vast majority of Musical are a deserved homage to females. They always win.. REgarding the melodramas is another story. Considering just two, "The Bad and the Beautiful" and "Two weeks in another Town" they show week Men dominated by stronger Women. I cannot understand why Kirk Douglas accepts to be dominated By ex-wife Cyd Charisse and Edward G. Robinson by a nagging bitch Claire Trevor.

The recently deceased Gore Vidal would certainly provide an explanation, but he was homosexual. I do nor believe Vincente Minelli was one, even if Wikipedia makes some allusions to that.

Minelly was of Solar sign Pisces. In my small experience as Astrologer, all Pisces men are great bachelor Artists (e.g. Ravel) or servants to strong women. Mala Sorte...

Limp melodrama crashes with a thud...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 9 December 2008]

Next to TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL looks like an all-around masterpiece of subtle drama. Both take a cynical look at the behind-the-scenes backstabbing in Hollywood.

The story gets off to a slow start and then continues to move at a snail's pace, especially through the early scenes where we're introduced to characters like EDWARD G. ROBINSON and his shrewish wife CLAIRE TREVOR. Robinson seems to be playing a thinly disguised version of Darryl F. Zanuck and Trevor seems to think she has to overdo the tirades in scene after scene so she can win another supporting Oscar like the one she snared for KEY LARGO. The school of overacting seems to be rampant here.

Irwin Shaw was obviously cynical about his own treatment by the Hollywood studios and has concocted a melodrama that is even more bitter about studio politics than THE BIG KNIFE or THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

It's strange that Vincente Minnelli would be the director chosen to bring this story to life, but suffice it to say that it's not one of his best directorial achievements. KIRK DOUGLAS does a decent job in the central role but most of the performances are absurdly over-the-top in a film wherein the script itself is the main problem.

Sorry, can't work up any enthusiasm for this one.

Wonderful Classic!

[mstylianou7 · 8/10 · 8 September 2021]

A beautiful story set in the Romantic City of Rome with a stellar cast and Directed by Vincent Minelli. What more could film buffs want? Kirk Douglas is intense and Cyd Charrise is wicked. However, it is the absolutely Gorgeous Dahlia Lavi who is to be adored the most!

"All women are just pure monster . . . "

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 28 March 2015]

. . . observes Edward G. Robinson as film director "Maurice Kruger," a clear stand-in for Alfred Hitchcock, who was at the pinnacle of his notoriety when TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN was released in 1962. Like "Hitch," Kruger operates under the thumb of his script supervisor\wife, Carla. Like Hitch, Kruger cannot keep his paws off his leading ladies, much to Carla's chagrin. As was the case with Alma Reville (Mrs. Hitch), Carla treats all the words of Kruger's scripts as if they're engraved on a stone tablet just carried down from Mt. Sinai. She does her best to destroy anyone who would dare change a syllable, or otherwise threaten the "Great Man's" Legacy. (Like Hitch, Kruger films no "cover shots," so producers cannot redo his scenes, either.) Though this Docudrama is marred by a surreal one-vehicle "car chase" toward the end (Kirk Douglas and Cyd Charisse seem to be in a sports car twirling in mid-air at the end of a cable), it did a public service for young actresses and models everywhere by blowing the whistle on Mr. Hitchcock's tyrannical philandering tendencies.

A perplexing travesty that attempts to turn pretentiousness into art.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 24 April 2014]

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".