“The same year as the great Hollywood Dunciad Singin' In The Rain, there was a rather hysterical piece of Hollywoodian self-analysis, The Bad And The Beautiful. This loaded, glossy melodrama about a ‘bad' megalomaniac Hollywood producer, Kirk Douglas, and a ‘beautiful' alcoholic star, Lana Turner, is a piquant example of what it purports to expose - luxurious exhibitionism. The course of what is described as a ‘rat race' to success is the softest turf ever. The structure is reminiscent of Citizen Kane, and there is the ‘Rosebud' of Mr. Douglas's ill-defined Oedipal confusion, but there are good scenes and, for those who enjoy gossip, incidents derived from a number of famous careers.”