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Sunday, November 5, 2017

THE POWER AND THE PRIZE (1956)

It's flatly directed by Henry Koster (there’s exactly one interesting shot, pivoting in a foyer on an exit); with a pair of unengaging romantic leads in worn-looking Robert Taylor & failed star-in-the-making Elizabeth Müeller, but any look, even a superficial one, at fast-changing American business ethics in the post-WWII era of world dominance bumps up interest in the overused Executive Suite milieu. Taylor, a high-level exec under Burl Ives’ steamroller capitalist, is set to wed the boss’s niece & eventually take over. But a business trip to London opens his eyes to niggling personal & professional doubts as he accommodates Ives’ dicey business practices and confronts the headstrong refugee (Müeller) running a charity service for displaced foreign artists. He’s checking up on the place at the request of Ives’ wife Mary Astor, a classic sexually frustrated ‘office widow’ who has ‘good causes’ instead of children. For Taylor & Müeller, their awkward meeting is an instant case of ‘opposite attraction,’ but some nasty rumors back at the office (Commie ties?/Prostitution ring?) may douse the flames. This is all far less interesting than the goings-on back on the business side of things, thanks to some exceptional perfs from vets like Charles Coburn & Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Easy to imagine more bite in the Howard Swiggett novel this is taken from. Check out that paperback cover!

DOUBLE-BILL: M-G-M had a tradition of business dramas going from DINNER AT EIGHT/’33, THE HUCKSTERS and EXECUTIVE SUITE/’54, even NETWORK/’76. But the businessman movie of ‘56 was Nunnally Johnson’s adaptation of Sloan Wilson’s THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT with Greg Peck.

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