The rise and fall of a Hollywood producer (Kirk Douglas) are recreated in flashback from the memories of those he victimized: the star (Lana Turner), the studio head (Walter Pidgeon), the writer (Dick Powell) and the director (Barry Sullivan). All have sworn never to work with him again, but as they await a telephone call now, it seems that they may all change their minds.... A sharply observant Hollywood tale, set for the most part in studios, The Bad and the Beautiful cleverly reflects the Hollywood surface it caricatures--the egos, the pretensions, the ridiculous trials and the transparent babble of life in tinsel town. All this is intriguingly staged under Vincente Minnelli's direction, which finds Hollywood half horror-movie, half haunting romanticism.