I stumbled upon this movie on TCM already in progress and only caught the last two-thirds. However, I thought it was great.
You can read about the story lines and the actors elsewhere, but I'd like to point out what I thought were two especially well set-up, lit, and with great camera direction. (There may have been more in the first third of the movie but I missed that part.) The first classic shot is when Lana Turner is doing her character's powerfully emotional final scene in the movie she's shooting. Our camera perspective pulls back from that shooting-scene-in-progress to show all the surrounding production staff and crew hands all in rapt attention.
Just check out all the perfectly positioned people in that scene, and how dramatically lit the scene is as the camera plays up and around the assembled workers! What perfectly-cast extras (or maybe they were real crew hands) who all "looked" their parts! And all the stereotypical body language poses! Just a great visual sense of knowing what it should look like. And the crowning touch is the smile that slowly and appreciatively appears on the worker sitting way up by the spotlights at the end of the scene. Great realized piece of directing. I would rank it up there with some of the revolutionary stuff boy-wonder Orson Welles did.
My other favorite "director's scene" is the very last scene at the end of the movie - note the acting, the lighting, the expressions, and the body movement and body language. Just a great piece of ensemble work, both in front of and behind the scenes. Classic! (p.s.- I also liked the way they did the end credits with clips from the movie for each of the primary characters along with their real name, so you could SEE who's who. It's a shame more modern movies don't do that...)