\u201cExecutive Suite\u201d is a drama that details the personalities and ambitions of the executives of the Tredway Corporation, a furniture manufacturing company, as they react to the unexpected death of the company president Avery Bullard.\u00a0 It also showcases the difference between two different kinds of corporate executives.\u00a0 One is the inspirational leader who recognizes that a company is the intersection of human beings as customers, employees and ownership.\u00a0 Someone who wants the company to succeed by striving for excellence in all the aspects of running a business.\u00a0 The other vision is expressed as the narrowest focus on maximizing the stock dividend by any means possible.<\/p>\n
The movie has an all-star cast with William Holden, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon and Barbara Stanwyck as the big names and other fine actors such as Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger, Nina Foch, Shelley Winters and June Allyson rounding out the cast in support roles.<\/p>\n
Bullard is leaving New York City to attend an executive board meeting at the Tredway factory in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 He has a stroke and dies on the street in front of the office building where the Board of Directors meeting was just held.\u00a0 His death on the street is observed from a window by one of the board members George Caswell, played by Louis Calhern.\u00a0 Caswell take advantage of this insider information (Bullard\u2019s death) to short 3,700 shares of Tredway stock in order to take advantage of the stock price drop that he expects to occur after the news breaks next Monday.\u00a0 But unfortunately for Caswell, the company is about to report an extremely large stock dividend based on excellent profits.\u00a0 This will make his short position extremely unprofitable.<\/p>\n
As the news of Bullard\u2019s death begins to filter through to the Tredway management, we get to see how each of the five vice presidents responds and what kind of men they are.\u00a0 Walter Pidgeon is Frederick Alderson, Vice President and Treasurer.\u00a0 He was Bullard\u2019s loyal second in command.\u00a0 He never had the drive to challenge any of Bullard\u2019s decisions and he therefore has begun to drift into a more passive role in the company management.\u00a0 Fredric March is Loren Shaw, Vice President and Controller.\u00a0 He is currently the dominant force in the company.\u00a0 Bullard has backed Shaw\u2019s methods to maximize short term profits, even when that has meant producing shoddy product lines.\u00a0 Shaw also maintains thorough surveillance of his fellow executives.\u00a0 He knows about their private foibles and uses this knowledge to blackmail them when it suits him.\u00a0 \u00a0Paul Douglas is Walter Dudley, Vice President for Sales.\u00a0 Walt is the epitome of the shady salesman.\u00a0 He is having an affair with his secretary (played by Shelley Winters) and often ignores his family and business responsibilities to satisfy his own pleasures. \u00a0Dean Jagger is Jesse Grimm, Vice President for Manufacturing.\u00a0 He is an old man who has seen the idealistic practices that Bullard espoused abandoned under Shaw\u2019s penny-pinching program.\u00a0 He is fed up with the shoddy products his plant has been forced to manufacture and is preparing to retire to escape it.\u00a0 And finally, William Holden is Don Walling, Vice President for Design and Development.\u00a0 Don is aggravated that Bullard\u2019s promises to allow him to modernize and optimize the manufacturing processes have been abandoned to pursue short term gain.\u00a0 His wife\u00a0\u00a0 Mary (played by June Allyson) wants him to quit and go someplace where his design talents will be put to good use.\u00a0 The other two executive board members are stockholders.\u00a0 One is George Caswell and the other is Julia Tredway (played by Barbara Stanwyck).\u00a0 She is the daughter of the founder of Tredway and also Bullard\u2019s long-time lover. \u00a0She is angry and depressed and looking to escape from all of the anguish she feels about Bullard and her unsatisfied relationship with him.<\/p>\n
We watch as Shaw gathers up the votes, he thinks he can collect to assure his election to president.\u00a0 Dudley\u2019s vote he will get by blackmailing him over his affair with his secretary.\u00a0 Caswell will sell his vote in exchange for a sweetheart deal to buy company stock and therefore cover his short position.\u00a0 And Julia gives Shaw her proxy just to escape from the necessity of attending the painful meeting.\u00a0 Along with his own vote this should give him the four votes he needs.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Alderson and Walling are attempting to stop Shaw.\u00a0 Not knowing of some of the pressure that Shaw can bring to bear they try to persuade Dudley, Grimm and Tredway to elect Dudley as an alternate to Shaw.\u00a0 Dudley because of the blackmail he is under of course turns them down.\u00a0 Walling and Tredway get into an emotional argument because of her very traumatic feelings about the company and Bullard.\u00a0 And when Dudley is no longer a viable choice for candidate Walling offers himself to Alderson as an alternative.\u00a0 But Alderson breaks the news to him that Grimm will not vote for Walling because he feels that he is too young and inexperienced.<\/p>\n
It all comes down to the board meeting and the voting fails to put Shaw over the top on the first ballot because Shaw had to provide Caswell with proof that he would be given the stock deal he wanted.\u00a0 Shaw then provides him with this assurance and the meeting prepares to come down to a second ballot.\u00a0 But before a motion is proposed for a vote Walling questions Shaw about his vision for leading Tredway into the future.<\/p>\n
Shaw clearly articulates that the duty of a corporate leader is to do everything in his power to maximize the return on investment to the stockholders.\u00a0 And he proudly claims that Mr. Bullard completely approved of the \u201cimprovements\u201d Shaw had made at Tredway that allowed for the exceptionally large quarterly dividend that Tredway had just recently announced.<\/p>\n
Then Walling answers him with a vision of a company thriving on excellence and integrity.\u00a0 At one point he finds a small table near the wall of the boardroom that was an example of the shoddy craftsmanship that Shaw\u2019s policies had fostered and he rips it apart with his bare hands and reviles a corporate philosophy that throws away the company\u2019s reputation as a manufacturer of quality products to realize a short-term profit.\u00a0 After this stirring appeal even Shaw votes with the rest of the board to elect Walling president.<\/p>\n
I am not an idealist.\u00a0 I understand that the good guys don\u2019t always win.\u00a0 I recognize that the market is a dog eat dog reality.\u00a0 But I also have seen what lowest possible cost manufacturing has done to this country.\u00a0 Corporate responsibility by American companies to its employees and the public is just as important as responsibility to its stockholders.\u00a0 I watched this movie for the first time this week and I think the message it makes is very timely.\u00a0 Add in the responsibility of government to protect American companies from unfair competition from rock bottom labor costs in the third world and you could be talking about a MAGA campaign ad.\u00a0 And from the point of view of entertainment the movie is enjoyable and well made.\u00a0 Even though this isn\u2019t a movie I\u2019ve seen over and over I can highly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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