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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 25, 2023 5:59:06 GMT
This Sunday, April 30th at 3pm ET / 1pm MT / 12pm PT, we will be watching and sharing our thoughts on the 1954 movie "Executive Suite," starring William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Nina Foch, Fredric March, Paul Douglas, Shelly Winters and Walter Pidgeon.
"Executive Suite's" outstanding cast
This business classic from MGM examines one high-pressured weekend in the lives of five vice presidents at a furniture manufacturing company whose president dies unexpectedly. The men and their wives spend the weekend jockeying for advantage before the company's Board votes Sunday evening for a new president.
You want to look for Nina Foch in this one as she gives, possibly, the best performances of her career. Despite sharing the screen with an incredibly talented cast, her portrayal of the smart, refined and loyal (and perfectly named) executive secretary Erica Martin stands out.
Nina Foch in a promotional pic from "Executive Suite"
Link to the movie: "Executive Suite"
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Post by topbilled on Apr 25, 2023 14:05:24 GMT
Great choice...can't wait!
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 27, 2023 5:30:54 GMT
Please join us this Sunday, April 30th at 3pm ET / 1pm MT / 12pm PT, to see power, greed, ego, ideology, sex (of course) and desperation smash into each other in the Boardroom of 1954's "Executive Suite."
Link to the movie: "Executive Suite"
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Post by topbilled on Apr 29, 2023 3:55:40 GMT
In preparation for this Sunday's showing, I began locating some old discs with films I had recorded from TCM ten years ago. These all had titles starring Barbara Stanwyck.
One disc had the melodrama B.F.'S DAUGHTER, which I hadn't seen in a long time. Stanwyck's father (Charles Coburn) is a tycoon during the depression. Though the film was produced in 1948, the story starts in 1932-ish.
Production values are superb. Uses some of the same sets we saw in EAST SIDE WEST SIDE, which also teamed Miss Stanwyck with Van Heflin.
Fading Fast, have you seen B.F.'S DAUGHTER? If so, what are your thoughts on it. Would it be one to watch some Sunday afternoon, later on...?
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 29, 2023 5:16:28 GMT
In preparation for this Sunday's showing, I began locating some old discs with films I had recorded from TCM ten years ago. These all had titles starring Barbara Stanwyck.
One disc had the melodrama B.F.'S DAUGHTER, which I hadn't seen in a long time. Stanwyck's father (Charles Coburn) is a tycoon during the depression. Though the film was produced in 1948, the story starts in 1932-ish.
Production values are superb. Uses some of the same sets we saw in EAST SIDE WEST SIDE, which also teamed Miss Stanwyck with Van Heflin.
Fading Fast, have you seen B.F.'S DAUGHTER? If so, what are your thoughts on it. Would it be one to watch some Sunday afternoon, later on...? I have seen the movie (my comments on the movie here: "B.F.'s Daughter") and read the book by John P. Marquand it is based on (my comments on the book here: "B.F.'s Daughter") and would highly recommend both.
As is usually the case back then, the book was "toned down" for the movie to meet the standards of The Motion Picture Production Code.
Marquand was a very popular author of that era who had several books turned into successful movies movies ("H.M. Pullman, Esq." is probably the most well known), but unfortunately, he's been all but forgotten today.
To your second question, I think it would be a good one for a Sunday Live, especially since Stanwyck and Van Heflin are popular actors with our group.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 29, 2023 5:21:09 GMT
Please join us tomorrow, April 30th at 3pm ET / 1pm MT / 12pm PT, to find out what these guys are looking out the window at in "Executive Suite."
Link to the movie: "Executive Suite"
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Post by topbilled on Apr 29, 2023 12:46:10 GMT
I see Marquand also wrote THE LATE GEORGE APLEY and STOPOVER TOKYO. Sounds like we could do a month of Marquand Melodramas!
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 29, 2023 12:54:55 GMT
I see Marquand also wrote THE LATE GEORGE APLEY and STOPOVER TOKYO. Sounds like we could do a month of Marquand Melodramas! That's a neat idea. Over the past few years, I've been sprinkling in a Marquand book now and then to my reading and have found them all to be solid page turners with plenty of melodrama and some smart insights into the period. It's not hard to understand why Hollywood turned them into movies.
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Post by topbilled on Apr 29, 2023 13:02:24 GMT
I see Marquand also wrote THE LATE GEORGE APLEY and STOPOVER TOKYO. Sounds like we could do a month of Marquand Melodramas! That's a neat idea. Over the past few years, I've been sprinkling in a Marquand book now and then to my reading and have found them all to be solid page turners with plenty of melodrama and some smart insights into the period. It's not hard to understand why Hollywood turned them into movies. So it does make one wonder-- why some authors fall out of favor. Another writer I respect a lot, whose work also served as the basis for many hit films, is A.J. Cronin.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 29, 2023 13:09:12 GMT
That's a neat idea. Over the past few years, I've been sprinkling in a Marquand book now and then to my reading and have found them all to be solid page turners with plenty of melodrama and some smart insights into the period. It's not hard to understand why Hollywood turned them into movies. So it does make one wonder-- why some authors fall out of favor. Another writer I respect a lot, whose work also served as the basis for many hit films, is A.J. Cronin. I haven't read his books, but have seen and enjoyed a few of the movies based on them, with "Keys of the Kingdom" being a particular favorite.
It's hard to know why some very popular writers fade into obscurity. I used to consume new books, but as they, like so much else today, have become more and more politicized, I've shifted my focus to older writers, something I always did a little bit. I've found an incredible number of outstanding authors from the twentieth century that are all but forgotten today.
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Post by topbilled on Apr 29, 2023 13:18:12 GMT
In preparation for this Sunday's showing, I began locating some old discs with films I had recorded from TCM ten years ago. These all had titles starring Barbara Stanwyck.
One disc had the melodrama B.F.'S DAUGHTER, which I hadn't seen in a long time. Stanwyck's father (Charles Coburn) is a tycoon during the depression. Though the film was produced in 1948, the story starts in 1932-ish.
I have seen the movie (my comments on the movie here: "B.F.'s Daughter") and read the book by John P. Marquand it is based on (my comments on the book here: "B.F.'s Daughter") and would highly recommend both.
I like this paragraph in your review:
Modern writers would have flexed their virtue-signally progressive muscles by turning the scene into one of a cold-hearted capitalist disowning his daughter as the socialist son-in-law denounces everything the old man stands for. Here, the daughter isn't disowned and the son-in-law doesn't denounce - making the scene real and powerful.
Yes, you are right...the script refrains from predictability, and we do get multi-dimensional characters. As I watched B.F.'S DAUGHTER last night, I was reminded that Coburn had played a similar tycoon, albeit more exaggerated for comic effect, in THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES opposite Jean Arthur.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 30, 2023 7:16:09 GMT
Please join us later today at 3pm ET / 1pm MT / 12pm PT to see what that annoying teaching-pleasing suck-up kid from grammar school looks like when he makes it to the executive suite.
Link to the movie: "Executive Suite"
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Post by topbilled on Apr 30, 2023 18:55:24 GMT
What a cast:
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Post by topbilled on Apr 30, 2023 18:56:13 GMT
I have this film on a disc with THE BLUE DAHLIA. Called 'Produced by John Houseman.'
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 30, 2023 18:58:13 GMT
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