Executive Suite (1954)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

Cameron Hawley (novel)
Ernest Lehman (writer)

Release Date:

17 September 1954 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Behind the lighted tower windows the conflict of love and power is reckless and daring!

Plot:

Avery Bullard, President of the Tredway Corporation has died. But he never named a clear successor, so the Board members must choose a replacement...

Plot Keywords:

Boardroom | Business Ethics | Daughter | Candidate | Business

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	McDonald Walling
June Allyson	...	Mary Blemond Walling
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Julia O. Tredway
Fredric March	...	Loren Phineas Shaw
Walter Pidgeon	...	Frederick W. Alderson
Shelley Winters	...	Eva Bardeman
Paul Douglas	...	Josiah Walter Dudley
Louis Calhern	...	George Nyle Caswell
Dean Jagger	...	Jesse Q. Grimm
Nina Foch	...	Erica Martin
Tim Considine	...	Mike Walling
William Phipps	...	Bill Lundeen
Lucy Knoch	...	Mrs. George Nyle Caswell
Edgar Stehli	...	Julius Steigel
Mary Adams	...	Sara Asenath Grimm

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | West Germany:12 | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #16711)

Filming Locations:

Long Beach Airport - 4101 E. Donald Douglas Drive, Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This was one of the few Hollywood films of the era not to have a musical score. The opening credits are shown to the accompaniment of traffic noises and the tolling of a bell.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Alderson walks over to meet Dudley as he's coming off the plane, the long shot shows Dudley walking amid a group of people, including a stewardess. A moment later, when Alderson reaches Dudley in close-up, all the surrounding people have vanished.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[pre-opening-credits sequence; views of skyscrapers]
Narrator: It is always up there, close to the clouds, on the topmost floors of the sky-reaching towers of big business. And because it is high in the sky, you may think that those who work there are somehow above and beyond the tensions and temptations of the lower floors. This is to say that it isn't so.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (1994) (V)

Holden as Tracy

Bill Holden was quoted as saying that Spencer Tracy and Fredric March were his acting ideals. Holden was fortunate enough to work with March in two films, one of them being this one. He never worked with Tracy however, but in this film comes close to emulating him.

Had MGM made this film 15 years earlier Spencer Tracy would have been cast in Holden's part, the young idealistic Vice President in charge of the experimental division. He has a vision as to where the company should go and his speech at the board meeting spells it out eloquently.

Most of the reviewers of this film single out Fredric March's performance as the best in this all star cast. But Holden is more than a match for March in the film and for acting kudos.

Spencer Tracy was always the actor who could deliver the long speeches the best for example, Boom Town and State of the Union. Holden goes into that category in this film.

You couldn't make Executive Suite today. Now the Board of Directors would have chosen a new president who would have shipped the factory to some third world country and left that town unemployed.