The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Cinemascope 153m
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan, Keenan Wyn, Lee J. Cobb
Synopsis:
A serviceman returns to civilian life battle-scarred and with a war child left behind in Rome. As his wife encourages him to aim high he takes a job with a media firm in Madison Avenue, but finds that ethical dilemmas over how to live continue to build around him.
Review:
Sloan Wilson's novel about the discontentment within the American Dream, at least for the American businessman, is given the full Fifties melodrama treatment by Johnson (cf. Douglas Sirk's films at Universal, and Minnelli's at MGM). The inclusion of a number of subplots (the boss's family life, the inheritance), not to mention a lengthy flashback sequence, though understandable, weighs the movie down and bends it out of shape. Peck and March work hard to give it some backbone, but Jones is histrionic and the studio rendition of NYC leaves us with no sense of place. What's more, the film looks and feels all wrong due to Fox/Zanuck's insistence on the widescreen process for all their productions, leading to bled-out colour and absurd compositions with cavernous spaces in the centre. What we are left with is at least a thoughtful comment on 'what we were fighting for', and the trade-off between materialist ambition and familial commitment.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Cinemascope 153m
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan, Keenan Wyn, Lee J. Cobb
Synopsis:
A serviceman returns to civilian life battle-scarred and with a war child left behind in Rome. As his wife encourages him to aim high he takes a job with a media firm in Madison Avenue, but finds that ethical dilemmas over how to live continue to build around him.
Review:
Sloan Wilson's novel about the discontentment within the American Dream, at least for the American businessman, is given the full Fifties melodrama treatment by Johnson (cf. Douglas Sirk's films at Universal, and Minnelli's at MGM). The inclusion of a number of subplots (the boss's family life, the inheritance), not to mention a lengthy flashback sequence, though understandable, weighs the movie down and bends it out of shape. Peck and March work hard to give it some backbone, but Jones is histrionic and the studio rendition of NYC leaves us with no sense of place. What's more, the film looks and feels all wrong due to Fox/Zanuck's insistence on the widescreen process for all their productions, leading to bled-out colour and absurd compositions with cavernous spaces in the centre. What we are left with is at least a thoughtful comment on 'what we were fighting for', and the trade-off between materialist ambition and familial commitment.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Cinemascope 153m
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan, Keenan Wyn, Lee J. Cobb
Synopsis:
A serviceman returns to civilian life battle-scarred and with a war child left behind in Rome. As his wife encourages him to aim high he takes a job with a media firm in Madison Avenue, but finds that ethical dilemmas over how to live continue to build around him.
Review:
Sloan Wilson's novel about the discontentment within the American Dream, at least for the American businessman, is given the full Fifties melodrama treatment by Johnson (cf. Douglas Sirk's films at Universal, and Minnelli's at MGM). The inclusion of a number of subplots (the boss's family life, the inheritance), not to mention a lengthy flashback sequence, though understandable, weighs the movie down and bends it out of shape. Peck and March work hard to give it some backbone, but Jones is histrionic and the studio rendition of NYC leaves us with no sense of place. What's more, the film looks and feels all wrong due to Fox/Zanuck's insistence on the widescreen process for all their productions, leading to bled-out colour and absurd compositions with cavernous spaces in the centre. What we are left with is at least a thoughtful comment on 'what we were fighting for', and the trade-off between materialist ambition and familial commitment.