a lushly noirish 1952 MGM melodrama about movie people in which Kirk Douglas’ unscrupulous film producer essentially alienates himself out of the business; no one wants to work with him anymore. All the same, at the end, when he’s on the phone to the studio, several of his “victims” can’t resist leaning in to the receiver to listen to what he’s got up his sleeve. Such is the allure of the movies, as well as of Douglas himself.
Douglas was always intense, especially in his early days, when his oft-clenched anger and fury matched the crime and tough action melodramas in which he was most frequently cast. He was a lower-class New York street kid, raised to use his wits and cunning, and these traits persisted throughout his life.
During his first decade as a star, Douglas made a point of testing himself and pushing limits; for him, the dramatic and the physical seemed unusually intertwined, certainly with his all-in performance as a boxer in