Murphy Howard
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
SnoopyStyle
Avery Bullard is the president of furniture manufacturer Tredway Corporation in the small town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania. He runs it as an one-man show with several VPs under him. After talking to his New York bankers, he drops dead in the street. His wallet is stolen and presumed to be a John Doe. George Caswell notices the death from his window and sells short the company stock before others find out. When the news arrive back in Millburgh, various people vie for control of the company including VP Don Walling (William Holden) and Loren Shaw (Fredric March) with the founder's heir Julia Tredway (Barbara Stanwyck).The most memorable characters are Holden and Stanwyck. Otherwise, they are mostly varying shades of old white guys in suits. Fredric March portrays the villain of the piece. It might be useful to concentrate more on his story. Instead, there are lots of character actors playing every one of the roles. Concentrating on Caswell early on may not set up the main conflict properly. There are some great actors galore receiving a few nominations. It is Holden who shines through with the climatic debate. This movie is swimming with greatness although it does lose me at certain times.
Beth Cole
Amazing to see these stories of how in the good ol' days, you could start out on the shop floor and work your way up to president of the corporation, MBA optional. In this movie we see just that, as a floor manager, despite misgivings, ends up vying with the chief financial officer for the presidency of a corporation.I enjoyed the drama section of the movie, peering into the wheelings and dealings of the members of a board. The plot is satisfyingly convoluted as the skeletons come out of the closet one by one, and everybody gets the upper hand on each other.However at the risk of a spoiler (I'm ticking that box), Holden's acclaimed pride-over-profit speech near the end fell somewhat flat for me. It is rousing enough, and I was fist-pumping in spite of myself. I guess even back then, as now, there was that irresistible pipe dream of big corporations offering quality over quantity, paying a decent living wage, and staying domestic all at the same time. The economics simply do not add up. That's what buying local is for, and yes, that comes at a premium. If there were a sequel to this movie ten or twenty years down the road, unfortunately the company would probably be bankrupt à la Rolls Royce circa 1971. Then I imagine a Citizen Kane moment with Holden's character sadly crumpling his tattered Declaration of Principles.
jjnxn-1
High class corporate intrigue/soap opera with an outstanding cast. Wise once again proves his dexterity with most any genre by steering this somewhat stagy drama smoothly over the hurdles.He's aided by a great cast that could have only been pulled together by one of the top studios during its peak years. As the main couple William Holden and June Allyson are surprisingly simpatico as the idealistic young husband and wife whose happy home life and future are suddenly jeopardized by an unexpected turn of events. His intense, reactionary temperament and her sunny, somewhat quivery rectitude on the surface would seem an odd fit but instead they come across as a long married couple whose differences only strengthen their union. As far as the other men go, Fredric March and Louis Calhern are interesting contrasts as two kinds of opportunist. March a resolute, basically principled bean counter who allows his ambition to compromise his integrity and Calhern a profligate heel who miscalculates at the wrong moment. Walter Pidgeon's character doesn't get to do much but be exasperated at different people and on the phone, he's more of a plot device to move the story forward. To a lesser extent the same is true of Paul Douglas' harassed salesman but he does get a couple of chances to flesh out his character in his interactions with Shelley Winters.Considering this is a 50's boardroom narrative it's nice to see several decent women roles included besides June's. Barbara Stanwyck as befits her star status gets the juiciest role, even if it is limited in actual screen time. At first her big emotional outburst seems overdone until you realize it's decades of frustration and pain she's pouring out, the rest of the time she cool and classy. Shelley Winters' secretary has a vulnerability not common in her work but she plays it well. That leaves Nina Foch, an excellent actress and she's fine as the dutiful executive secretary but she was Oscar nominated for this and that's a puzzler. Of all the parts in the picture hers is the lest fleshed out. She's a steadying force but nothing else, we learn nothing of her and she doesn't make much of an impact on the flow of the film.Similar in structure to Patterns, The Power and the Prize and the much glossier Women's World if you like films about power struggles and the backstage machinations involved with them you're sure to find this enjoyable.
irvberg2002
As most other reviewers, I found this a delightful watch; all the actors are right on and the story is gripping. But I am amazed by the number of reviewers who labor under the notion that this is a film about "big business." Given the numbers of the shares of stock and their prices, even at 1954 rates, this is quite a small business and most of the shares are closely held (by the daughter of the founder); it's puzzling how the SEC would permit the shares of such a business to be publicly traded. It's also puzzling how the profits of such an outfit could support the salaries of the executives/board members shown in the film. In this respect, this film is similar to Cash McCall, based on a novel by the same author,where the business involved is tiny compared to the scale of, e.g., the top thousand American corporations by any measure, sales, capitalization, etc.
