The Big Knife (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Clifford Odets
- First Published: 1949
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Naturalism
- Time of Work: The late 1940’s
- Setting: Beverly Hills, California
- Genres: Naturalistic literature, Drama, Melodrama
- Subjects: Values, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Acting or actors, Power, personal or social, Suicide, 1940’s, California, West, U.S., Alcoholism or alcoholics, Substance abuse, Success or failure, Filmmaking or filmmakers, Drunk driving or drivers, Scandal
- Locales: Beverly Hills, CA
Characters Discussed
Charlie Castle, a film star of considerable renown. He is rich, ruggedly handsome, virile, charming, frequently cynical, and dependably candid in dealing with people. Charlie’s studio is pressuring him to renew his contract, which he does not want to sign, although it is for fourteen years at four million dollars a year. One skeleton lurks in Charlie’s closet: Once, when he was driving drunk, he had an accident in which someone was killed. He permitted Buddy Bliss to take the blame and to go to jail for vehicular manslaughter. the studio uses this...
[The entire page is 797 words long]
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