Executive Suite
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DVD details
Actor: Dean Jagger, Fredric March, Nina Foch, William HoldenBrand: Warner Brothers
Performer: Barbara Stanwyck
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Executive Suite
DVD Review: DVD Showcases Slick, Vigorous Movie Focused on Pre-Enron Corporate Backroom Politics
Summary: 4 Stars
Finally on DVD, this forgotten 1954 drama would certainly be ripe for a remake in the age of Enron, Halliburton and Tyco. As it stands, it's a slick MGM package directed by Robert Wise with an all-star cast but also a surprisingly incisive film about a corporate power struggle within a leading furniture company. Even though there is an air of soap opera naiveté about it, the movie benefits significantly from an economical, provocative script by Ernest Lehman, his first for the big screen, and a powerful cast of star actors performing like a well-oiled machine. An intriguing subtlety of the story is that the company is publicly held and consequently questions regarding stockholder value and dividend payouts take on a surprising dramatic resonance.
The linear plot focuses on the sudden death of Tredway Corporation president Avery Bullard on a Friday afternoon. With no succession plan in place - a gap felt by many companies today - six VPs are all possible candidates to take over - perennial also-ran Alderson, oily Caswell, weak-willed Dudley, retirement-ready Grimm, power-hungry Shaw and up-and-comer Walling. Each has his own advantages and obvious shortcomings, with the additional complication of Julia Tredway, the chief stockholder, who is also the daughter of the company founder and as it turns out, Bullard's frustrated mistress. What follows are the weekend machinations of the men, culminating in a Monday morning showdown in the corporate boardroom where the successor is named. What I like most about the film is Wise's no-frills approach toward what could have been a rather by-the-numbers story about company politics. He takes the predictably episodic aspect of following the five men and integrates the threads tightly and seamlessly. Wise uses no music to highlight the drama, which ironically allows the histrionics to work on their own, and a neat first-person POV to open the film dramatically.
The heavy-duty cast does well in economic turns that epitomize the concept of ensemble. As Walling, William Holden was at the height of his film career in 1954 (he was also in Sabrina, The Country Girl and The Bridges at Toko-Ri that year), and he provides the comparatively youthful charisma to get away with the high-minded speech at the end. With her trademark frog-throated sincerity, June Allyson plays Walling's dutiful wife with efficiency. Walter Pidgeon also makes his moments count as Alderson, especially in the cathartic scene when he comes to accept his own limitations. As Dudley, Paul Douglas plays another variation of the bearish, brash role he played in Joseph Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives, while a young Shelley Winters is surprisingly low-key as his secretary/mistress.
Louis Calhern turns his dignified persona inside out as Caswell, and Nina Foch brings a palpable sense of desperate grief to the role of Bullard's executive assistant. Dean Jagger has precious few moments as Grimm, while Barbara Stanwyck moves securely into Joan Crawford-at-Pepsi territory and gets to have a major meltdown as Julia. The final scene she has with Allyson speaking about the role of the tolerant wife is a dated piece of pre-feminist whimsy. Yet, out of this impressive gallery of scenery chewers, the best performance comes from Fredric March, who brings uncompromising, Machiavellian malevolence to a simmering boil as Shaw. The last scenes move so quickly that the ending feels a bit pat, but no matter, this movie still makes the backroom world of corporate politics utterly fascinating.
The 2007 DVD, released as a single disc or as part of the five-disc, six-film Barbara Stanwyck - The Signature Collection, boasts an enthusiastic commentary track from maverick filmmaker Oliver Stone, who views the film as a cultural milestone as well as a cinematic one (his own Wall Street is obviously inspired by it). As was typical with theatrical screenings back in the 1950's, there are a couple of vintage 1954 MGM shorts included - one an 11-minute live-action Pete Smith featurette, "Out for Fun", and the other is a Tex Avery cartoon, "Billy Boy". The original theatrical trailer completes the DVD extras.
Description of Executive Suite
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