THE BIG KNIFE REVIEWED
“The Big Knife” is one of many movies about 1950s Hollywood trying to spotlight itself. I’m a big fan of the film, as I truly dig Rod Steiger’s performance in the movie. The guy puts the ham in a Cuban sandwich if you know what I mean. Somewhere between drunken Shelley Winters and Jean Hagen being morose, I noticed something. This disc is missing footage. Jack Palance has this great speech to Ida Lupino, but the scene plays like this now. Jack Palance enters. Jack Palance leaves.
While this is a great Aldrich melodrama from before he started doing lady pictures, it also shows many of his early high-points. The guy likes to craft movies about people talking and plotting. The film centers on the efforts to keep a marriage together, so that a studio contract can be saved. Naturally, this ends as well as can be expected. I still wonder if Odets got edited hard during the production, but who knows? The writers meant as much as Best Boys back then. Your parents will dig this one.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Commentary
- Bass on Titles segment
- Rare TV promo
- Trailer
A/V STATS
- 1.85:1 1080p transfer
- LPCM 1.0