This one is also fun to watch if you happen to have been a young person with dreams of one day being a car designer (and like yours truly here in my youth) and thanks to the Ford Motor Company graciously allowing its Mercury Division's future design studio to be featured at one point within the film.Belle wrote: ↑August 2nd, 2023, 5:25 pmI hadn't heard of this film; thanks for the heads-up. "Executive Suite" is a very fine film, as you say. I've always admired Van Heflin and regard him as a somewhat under-rated actor. Cornel Wilde, not so much. I'll watch the film this morning, after your recommendation.Detective Jim McLeod wrote: ↑August 2nd, 2023, 2:07 pm
Woman's World (1954) Youtube -8/10
An auto tycoon (Clifton Webb) invites three candidates and their wives to New York to decide which one will be named to the coveted position of general manager of the firm.
I spoke about this one on another thread about films worth of re discovery. This is the first time I have seen it in years but it is still highly entertaining. It is Cinemascope and in Technicolor so it is great to look at and the cast is excellent. The copy on Youtube is great.
Van Heflin is a quiet, seemingly unambitious Texan with a gold digger wife (Arlene Dahl). Fred MacMurray is a Philadelphia workaholic married to Lauren Bacall, who loves him but wants a divorce due to his obsession with work. Cornel Wilde is a loving husband and father from Kansas City, his wife is a well meaning klutz played by June Allyson.
The story is similar to another film from the same year Executive Suite. But that film was a stark B&W drama compared to this glossy film which is much more light hearted and entertaining. Ironically June Allyson appears in both films as a wife. Her performance in WW is hilarious and maybe my favorite part of the movie. There are also some nice shots of New York City.
I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of 1950s color comedy/dramas, it has some soap opera vibes but I found the comedy the best part.
I've just watched the opening credits and I see that Australia really exists; it's on that map at the beginning!! Also, the film forms part of the zeitgeist post WW2 of 're-feminizing' women after factory work during the war and upon the re-establishment of domesticity. The complete antithesis of the feminist movement; in that sense the film is something of a historical record. Director Jean Negulesco tells me this will not be your "Show of Shows" but your "soap of soaps"!!
That's what I've always remembered most about this film.
(...well okay, THAT and watching Van Heflin once again playing a cuckold husband in some movie)