Executive Suite **** (1954, William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Fredric March, Louis Calhern, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Dean Jagger, Nina Foch) – Classic Movie Review 2526

‘Behind the lighted tower windows the conflict of love and power is reckless and daring!’ Director Robert Wise’s Oscar-nominated 1954 drama stars Barbara Stanwyck as Julia O Tredway, who oversees the candidates for new board president when her father, Avery Bullard, the President of the huge Tredway Corporation furniture manufacturing business passes on from a sudden stroke.

William Holden also stars as junior executive McDonald ‘Don’ Walling, the sole candidate who is not wheeler-dealing for the job as he is more concerned about his wife Mary (June Allyson) and son Mike (Tim Considine). Fredric March plays calculating skilled businessman Loren Shaw, the most likely successor, but some want to stop him.

The board members have a difficult task in choosing a replacement for Bullard as they don’t like conniving old Shaw or trust young idealistic Walling.

A big, extremely starry cast is at its best for these tense and heated Fifties boardroom shenanigans, mixing business and pleasure, directed by Wise and written by Ernest Lehman (based on the novel by Cameron Hawley) as though it’s a thriller, which in some ways it is.

Producer John Houseman employs the kind of quality actors who deliver the kind of impactful performances that really count, but it’s Stanwyck, March, Louis Calhern, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Dean Jagger and Oscar-nominated Nina Foch who most hit the spot.

George J Folsey’s was also nominated for Best Cinematography Black-and-White, Cedric Gibbons, Edward C. Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Black-and-White and Helen Rose for Best Costume Design Black-and-White.

Also in the cast are William Phipps, Lucille Knoch, George Nyle, Mary Adams, Virginia Brissac, Edgar Stehl, Harry Shannon, Jonathan Cott and May McAvoy.

An 18 episode TV series followed in 1976-77 with Mitchell Ryan, Sharon Acker and Leigh McCloskey.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2526

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