Word: holden
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Executive Suite. Star-studded scramble for the presidency of a big corporation; with William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, etc., etc. (TIME...
Executive Suite (MGM) is loaded with enough big names to tear the marquee off the average movie house. William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger and Nina Foch-all appear in this adaptation of Cameron Hawley's bestselling novel about big businessmen locked in a grim struggle for power. And when all the stars together set up a fiercely competitive twinkle for attention, the moviegoer is apt to feel somewhat like a switchboard operator with ten calls blinking at once...
Meanwhile, the opposition, although dead-set against March, can't get together on a candidate. Walter Pidgeon, the senior in point of service, doesn't feel up to the job, thinks William Holden (Design and Development) should have it. But Dean Jagger (Production), who dislikes Holden, won't stand still for such a deal, and Holden himself, arm-tugged by his wife (June Allyson), is not sure that he wants any part...
...tension is brilliantly built by all hands. The script maintains the mood with a cold, mechanical finesse: each new scene thrusts out the one before with a brisk push-pull, click-click. Yet curiously, only one actor really seems to get his blood up in the contest. Holden, Douglas and Calhern are fine in their characterizations of U.S. businessmen. But as the "night-school C.P.A." who tries to charm, scheme, jostle and bluff his way to power, Fredric March is magnificent...
Actor March's performance is so convincing, in fact, that by contrast the upbeat ending seems a little silly. At the big board meeting, Holden hits the sawdust trail for bigger and better production, full employment, community service, and some sort of universal good. Exciting as the scene is, it leaves the spectator wondering whether business really needs such frenzied philosophic justification. The trouble with some of the boys in this executive suite may be that they secretly agree with Sinclair Lewis. They still feel vaguely ashamed of making money, and perhaps they try to salve their consciences...