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Executive Suite is a 1954 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman, based on the novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The film stars William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Louis Calhern and Nina Foch.[2][3] The plot depicts the internal struggle for control of a furniture manufacturing company after the unexpected death of the company's CEO. Executive Suite was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including for Nina Foch's performance, which earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Executive Suite
Directed by	Robert Wise
Written by	Ernest Lehman
Based on	Executive Suite 1952 novel by Cameron Hawley
Produced by	John Houseman
Starring	William Holden June Allyson Barbara Stanwyck Fredric March Walter Pidgeon
Cinematography	George J. Folsey
Edited by	Ralph E. Winters
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	May 6, 1954 (1954-05-06)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,383,000[1]
Box office	$3,585,000[1]

This was Lehman's first produced screenplay, and its plot deviates substantially from the novel. He went on to write Sabrina, North by Northwest, West Side Story, and other films. The film is one of few in Hollywood history without a musical score, but the song "Singin' in the Rain" is sung by Mike Walling while he is off-camera taking a shower. The song appears in many MGM films during the period when its lyricist Arthur Freed was a producer at the studio.

Plot

While in New York City to meet with investment bankers, 56-year-old Avery Bullard, president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major furniture manufacturing company in the town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania, drops dead in the street. As he collapses, he drops his wallet. It is picked up by a bystander, emptied of its cash, and shoved into a wastebasket. Without the wallet, there is no way to immediately identify the body as Bullard.

George Caswell, a member of the Tredway board of directors and one of the investment bankers with whom Bullard had just met, sees what he believes is Bullard's body in the street below their offices and decides to profit from the information. He engages a broker to make a short sale of as much Tredway stock as he can before the end of trading that Friday afternoon. Caswell plans to make an easy profit and cover the sale by buying Tredway stock at "a 10-point discount" on Monday, when news of Bullard's death will presumably push the stock price down. Caswell begins to doubt that it was Bullard who died, but when he reads in a newspaper that the man had the initials "A.B." on his clothes and cufflinks, he calls the police to tip them off to the identity of the deceased.

Bullard had never named his successor, nor had he appointed a vice-president since the previous one died. Over the next 28 hours, Tredway's executives vie for the position of president. Once news of his death reaches Tredway, company controller Loren Shaw takes the initiative in arranging Bullard's funeral and coordinating the company's public reaction. In so doing, he undercuts treasurer Frederick Alderson, one of Bullard's close friends, and this effectively diminishes Alderson in his own eyes so that he won't seek the presidency.

Shaw also shrewdly releases the upcoming quarterly report so that the good news of big profits can counter the news of Bullard's death and perhaps even raise the stock price when the market opens.

Ambitious, but narrowly focused, Shaw is concerned more with short-term accounting gains and satisfying the stockholders than the quality of the company's actual products and long-term growth. He gains the proxy of Julia Tredway, the daughter of the company's founder, who is still a major shareholder and board member. She had been considering selling her stock after realizing the futility of her difficult romantic relationship with, and true love for, Bullard after many years. She was finally heartbroken after coming second behind the company for both her father and Bullard.

Shaw buys Caswell's vote in exchange for allowing Caswell to purchase 4,000 shares of company stock at the Friday closing price to cover his "shady" short sale. If Caswell does not get those shares, he will be in serious financial trouble. Meanwhile, Walt Dudley, back-slapping vice president of sales, is having an affair with his secretary, Eva Bardeman, for which Shaw is now blackmailing him.

In addition, Vice President of Manufacturing Jesse Grimm has decided to retire instead of seeking the top job. But while he's no fan of Shaw's, he has serious reservations about the relative youth of the only other potential contender, Don Walling, the idealistic Vice President for Design and Development.

All these machinations result in Shaw having enough votes that he has a virtual lock on the job even before the board meets.

Treasurer Alderson and Don Walling, however, are determined to prevent Shaw from taking over. After considering all the contenders, Walling convinces Alderson that Walling himself should be president. Walling is a strong believer in developing higher quality new products and more efficient manufacturing methods, although his wife, Mary, is against his giving up his dream of being a full-time designer.

At an emergency board meeting on Saturday evening, the machinations, bargaining, and maneuvering culminate with Walling's enthusiasm, vision, and his stirring boardroom speech eventually changing Jesse Grimm's, Walt Dudley's and Julia Tredway's minds. Walling is ultimately elected unanimously as company president. He moves to Shaw and shakes his hand, to Shaw's surprise.

As the board leaves the meeting room, Shaw tears up a letter ensuring Caswell's share purchase. Caswell will be ruined financially. Walling and his wife embrace. Walling makes his first executive decision, asking his secretary to arrange a meeting for the Monday morning for the election of the new vice-president. Entering the lift, Walling remembers to ask how the game went. His wife answers "We won."

Cast

• William Holden as McDonald "Don" Walling, vice president for Design and Development
• June Allyson as Mary Blemond Walling, wife of Don Walling
• Barbara Stanwyck as Julia O. Tredway, daughter and heir of the founder of Tredway
• Fredric March as Loren Phineas Shaw, vice president and controller
• Walter Pidgeon as Frederick Y. Alderson, vice president and treasurer
• Shelley Winters as Eva Bardeman, secretary to Walter Dudley, as well as his mistress
• Paul Douglas as Josiah Walter Dudley, vice president for Sales
• Louis Calhern as George Nyle Caswell, board member
• Dean Jagger as Jesse Q. Grimm, vice president for Manufacturing
• Raoul Freeman as Avery Bullard[4]
• Nina Foch as Erica Martin, secretary to the late CEO, Avery Bullard
• Tim Considine as Mike Walling, son of Don Walling

Production

The film was planned to have 145 speaking parts, a record for MGM.[5]

Reception

Contemporaneous

The film received enthusiastic reviews.[6] It was number one at the U.S. box office for four consecutive weeks during May 1954, grossing $1,845,000.[7][6] According to MGM records, the film eventually earned theatrical rentals of $2,682,000 in the U.S. and Canada, and $903,000 in other markets, for a worldwide total of $3,585,000 and a profit of $772,000.[1]

Modern

The film has received critical acclaim from modern day critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 100% based on 9 reviews, with an average score of 8/10.[8]

Awards and nominations

Award[9]	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Nina Foch	Nominated
	Best Art Direction – Black-and-White	Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis and Emile Kuri	Nominated
	Best Cinematography – Black-and-White	George Folsey	Nominated
	Best Costume Design – Black-and-White	Helen Rose	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	Best Film from any Source		Nominated
	Best Foreign Actor	Fredric March	Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Robert Wise	Nominated
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films		5th Place
	Best Supporting Actress	Nina Foch	Won
Venice International Film Festival	Golden Lion	Robert Wise	Nominated
	Grand Jury Prize	The Acting Ensemble	Won
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Written American Drama	Ernest Lehman	Nominated

TV series

More than two decades later, the film and novel were adapted into a weekly television series with the same title. Airing on CBS in 1976-1977, the TV version changed the fictional corporate setting to the Cardway Corporation in Los Angeles. Mitchell Ryan starred as company chairman Dan Walling, with Sharon Acker as his wife Helen and Leigh McCloskey and Wendy Phillips as his children, Brian and Stacey. Other series regulars included Stephen Elliott, Byron Morrow, Madlyn Rhue, William Smithers, Paul Lambert, Richard Cox, Trisha Noble, Carl Weintraub, Maxine Stuart, and Ricardo Montalban.

Scheduling opposite Monday Night Football on ABC, and then The Rockford Files on NBC, doomed the show to poor ratings, and it was canceled after one season.

References

External links

• Executive Suite at IMDb
• Executive Suite at the TCM Movie Database
• Executive Suite at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Executive Suite at AllMovie
• Executive Suite at Rotten Tomatoes

На других языках

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- [en] Executive Suite

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[ru] Административная власть

«Административная власть»[1] (англ. Executive Suite) (другой перевод «Номер для директоров») — чёрно-белый кинофильм режиссёра Роберта Уайза (1954), созданный по мотивам одноимённого романа Кэмерона Хоули. В ролях — ведущие голливудские звёзды того времени. Специальный приз жюри Венецианского кинофестиваля, номинации на премию «Оскар» и BAFTA.

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