Word: wakemans
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...Saxon Charm (Universal-International) is an adaptation of the novel by Frederic (The Hucksters) Wakeman about the strange character and conduct of a Broadway producer. Eric Busch (John Payne), a writer, hopes that the great Matt Saxon (Robert Montgomery) will produce his play about Moliere. Saxon is ready and eager, but the process is not entirely simple. Saxon is a man of considerable charm, vitality and at least surface ability; but he is also something of a maniac. His mania is to charm, dominate and, if possible, destroy every person who falls within his spell. The little improvements he insists...
...fully enjoy The Saxon Charm, it would be necessary to believe in the writer as a writer and to be pretty thoroughly taken in by Mr. Saxon's charm. Since Novelist Wakeman is not exactly a dazzling writer himself, he has not created a very interesting one; nor is John Payne equipped by nature to play an author with much plausibility. Since Saxon's conduct, 90% of the time, is about as uncharming as possible, the problem of selling him to an audience ought to be tougher than it turns...
There really are people like Saxon, and Mr. Wakeman has managed to get whiffs of the truth about them into his leading character. What is more important, Bob Montgomery performs wonders with the part. Montgomery is one of the few graceful actors left since the death of Osgood Perkins, and he appears to have wit, experience and charm to burn. This is not one of his better roles, and he successfully gives the illusion of playing it without ever touching the handlebars; but in the midst of a well-tooled piece of emptiness, his is an enchanting performance to watch...
...only concern, he said, was that the loss of the account would jeopardize the jobs of about 200 out of 1,000-odd F. C. & B. employees (who once included rambunctious Frederic [The Hucksters'] Wakeman). After "long and prayerful wrestling" with this problem, Foote said, he decided to sacrifice himself, if necessary. Flying to Chicago for a Sunday meeting with Partners Fairfax Cone and Don Belding, he offered to resign from the firm if his associates decided to keep the account. But Cone and Belding would not hear of it, said Foote, so the account was dropped instead...
Once upon a time Charles O. Gorham was publicity chief of the biggest U.S. book publisher (Doubleday). Now he has set out to do for the publishing business what Frederic Wakeman has done for the "hucksters." The result is The Gilded Hearse, a novel which Doubleday is not publishing...