User Reviews

First, I highly recommend one read the Wikipedia article about this film before viewing it. It's pretty entertaining reading, and gives one some background as to just how important a film this was at the time.

It was not that popular, and critics were not fond of it at the time, either. But, according to Wikipedia, the attitude of critics toward the film has "mellowed". And, in my view, deservedly so.

First, this is an ideal film for Deborah Kerr, although she was new to the public at that time (this was her first American film), so the public didn't yet know how to peg her. In a sense, this is "An Affair To Remember" in reverse. Kerr is enchanted -- reluctantly so -- by Gable, who is the complete opposite of Cary Grant. Instead of suave and sophisticated, he's a big rough around the edges...a huckster in all of life. And, this is no light comedy or traditional romance. No, it's an expose of sorts of the advertising business of the time...though some things still run pretty true. Gable is also perfect here. Can't you just see Gable as huckster? It's a paring that works.

The supporting actors here are very strong. Knowing his politics, it's sometimes difficult for me to like Adolphe Menjou, but here as the advertising executive he's very good. Sydney Greenstreet is perfectly (word intended) obnoxious here as the spoiled rotten (literally) sponsor...particularly in one rather daring scene where you see him hawk a spit on the boardroom table. I'm not a fan of Ava Gardner's, but she's very pleasant here as the singer. And, Edward Anrold is great as a talent agent, though his role is not large.

This is a very watchable film, but a rather serious one. Recommended! And perhaps one for your DVD shelf.

Near the beginning of this movie Evan Llewellyn Evans, Sidney Greenstreet, owner of Beautee Soap and the most powerful client of Adolph Menjou's Madison Avenue advertising agency, hawks up a big ginder from the back of his throat and lobs it onto the boardroom table, much to the shock of his sycophants. "Gentlemen," he announces, "I have just performed a disgusting act." It's the most telling moment in the film. Evan Llewellyn Evans may be genetically incapable of Welshing on a deal but he's capable of some pretty disgusting acts. The second most telling moment in the film is saved for the climax, when the successful new employee, Clark Gable, finds that the phoniness and throat-cutting of the advertising business is not for him, and tells Greenstreet and Menjou what they can do with the jumbo-sized salary they've just offered him, and then stalks out of the board room to melt away his old self and discover his new, more principled, bite-sized, transfat-free new self in the arms of Deborah Kerr.

The plot isn't stupid. The intrigues, betrayals, and misunderstandings aren't openly spelled out as in a child's storybook. Most of the character development takes place in Gable's character, just returned from the war. He's pretty honest about himself and a little blunt with others but he keeps his cool throughout. He has what sociologists call "role distance." Role distance is Erving Goffman's term for "actions which effectively convey some disdainful detachment of the (real life) performer from a role he is performing". He knows when he's being good at his job and he knows when he's being a cad. His chief mistake is in thinking that money is the most important goal and that it's achieved by sometimes unethical means. His performance throughout is quite good.

Deborah Kerr as the aristocratic war widow is excellent. Her beauty is of an ethereal sort. She's delicate, frangible. She's "in touch with her feelings" and can be firm enough but her demeanor suggests she might collapse with fear or an excess of desire at any moment. (I kind of like that in a woman.) I don't know where she got the reputation of being some kind of ice queen in the movies. As an actress, she had good range -- comedic in "Casino Royale" and homespun and earthy in "The Sundowners." I don't think Ava Gardner ever looked more attractive or gave a better performance. But then all the acting is good and earns the film some extra bonus points. All the acting except for Sidney Greenstreet, that is, who is miscast as a rude blowhard redneck with some kind of terrible COWBOY hat and a blustering insistence on an in-your-face commercial style: His ideal jingle does nothing but repeat "BEAUTEE SOAP" without syncopation. This is Ed Begley's role, not Sidney Greenstreet's.

The movie was a bellwether in its own way. In 1947, the economy was just getting back onto a peacetime footing. People were beginning to make money again, and in the 1950s there would be an explosion of stories (eg., "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit", "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?") about the Madison Avenue ad agencies that would guide consumers into one or another channel to spend it all and go into debt doing it. Logically, in the 60s, there should have been a succession of dramas about credit card companies but it didn't happen.

Somewhat reminds me of "Death of a Salesman", which wouldn't appear on stage and later screen until a couple of years later. To me, who has never been substantially associated with salesmanship or the advertisement industry, they both come across as often rather soulless occupations, especially if you know that what you are selling or advertising is inferior to your pitch, or to competing products. And that is one of the points of this film.

In the film, Evan Evans : 'The Beautee Soap King', claims that there are no real differences between soap bars, except color and fragrance : "Soap is soap". Advertising is the key to which soap the public will buy. My wife would certainly disagree with that pronouncement. Fragrance is important to her very sensitive nose. Other characteristics are also important to her, including whether it's on sale. Remember that Ivory soap long ago became popular because it floated and was white, supporting the contention that it was 99 and 44/100% pure. Of course, the fact that it floats in a tub of water is much less important today when most people take a shower rather than sit in a tub, and clothes now are washed by detergents, not bar soap.

This film was an adaptation of the recent best-selling book of the same title. I haven't read it, but I understand that it was a harder hitting critique of the advertisement industry. Actually, this film is more a critique of one particular nasty, tyrannical, corporate boss, in the person of Evan Evans, as well played by Sydney Greenstreet, and the constant fear he brought to the CEO of the company which did his advertisements, in the person of Mr. Kimberly, well played by the charismatic Adolphe Menjou. Kimberly Sheppard's Clark Gable, as Victor Norman, is trying to reestablish himself as an advertising executive, after having just been discharged from the armed services.

I suspect the romance angle is given more emphasis than in the book. In the book, the main woman Norman romances is married. The Hollywood censorship board wouldn't allow that. Thus, Deborah Kerr's character: Kay Dorrance, is characterized as the upper-class British widow of a general, whom Gable meets rather early in the film, in connection with his job advertising Beautee Soap. His other sometimes girlfriend is played by cute Ava Gardner. Although Ava and Deborah were both in their mid-twenties, Deborah seemed to me to be 10 years older, the romance of her character with Gable proceeding gradually, as she was very conservative in that way. In the middle, they had a falling out when Gable arranged for their separate rooms at the Blue Penguin hotel, in nearby Conn to be far apart. But, the manager put them next to each other, with adjoining door. Gable should have nixed that, but didn't complain loud enough. Thus, when Kerr arrived separately, by taxi, when she discovered this arrangement, she didn't even seek out Gable, returning to her taxi and NYC. This was a sore point for a while, but eventually, Kerr broke down, and they reconciled. Incidentally, there actually is a so -called Blue Penguin, that lives in N. Z. There's also actually a Blue Penguin hotel on the Conn shore, not far from NYC. But! It wasn't built until 2009!, possibly as a replacement for a destroyed original?

The climax begins as Evans calls for a conference at 2AM, Sunday morning: just as Gable is returning from Hollywood: not a good sign. Unexpectedly, Evans congratulates Gable on the Beautee Soap-sponsored radio show he arranged in Hollywood. He is offered a job for $35,000./year(very generous for the times). But, unexpectedly, he turns it down. Not only that, but he lambasts Evans for his tyrannical behavior, in general. At the end of his speech, he says something about "You're all wet", and pours a pitcher of water on Even's head, in mimicry of Evan's previous statement that "You're all wet", before pouring the pitcher of water on the conference table. To me, that is the high point of the film! He then walks out and gets in Kerr's car, giving her the bad news. She tries to cheer him up, saying it's better if he does something he likes, even if he doesn't make a ton of money, for a quasi-happy ending.

As with most of Gable's films, you can see this free at YouTube. .............. Ava Gardner would get two more chances to costar with Gable, in 1952's "Lone Star", and '53's "Mogambo", having to share the latter with Grace Kelly.