[Blarg]

It's Lancaster's sister, not his daughter. Ah, I see you fixed that in the 3rd paragraph, but it's still up top.

I don't usually find films about show biz very interesting, but I liked this one more than I thought I would. The corruption of everyone, including the police, was completely taken for granted. Pretty boy Tony Curtis played a craven jerk it was pretty hard to identify with -- not the usual thing a star does. Lancaster was fairly despicable and played enjoyably against type as a gossip columnist instead of a teeth gritting tough guy. The beauty of his plan in the movie is that it not only goes so far and does so much horrendous damage to people, but is really so ill thought out and virtually arbitrary. This isn't a guy doing the best he can in a tough world and sometimes coming across the same mistakes we all would, or maybe one or two more; it's an egomaniac with all their usual sloppiness and vindictive destruction causing so much more trouble than the situation could possibly call for, and everyone suffering the result.

The relish Lancaster brings to abusing the people he's with isn't something you see often on a screen; the guy seems to live for the satisfaction of just grinding the boot into people. For a guy who's basically on top of the world, he sure doesn't know how to enjoy it sanely. He's bitter and petty and pretty fun to watch.

The film is not one I enjoyed immensely, but I did like the way it painted an incredibly clear picture of its casually ruthless and sordid world and the various sniveling bastards inhabiting it. And the very unconventional, for that time or any time, look at the arbitraryness and spiteful pettiness of power. And the stars playing so opposite to type.