A minimum of action and a strong sense of realism help raise this corporate melodrama above the pile. When the Treadway Corporation's president dies in the streets of New York, a power scramble ensues which tests the integrity, morality, and manhood of everyone on the executive board (and yes, I think in this movie even Stanwyck has a manhood!!!). the really central issue, as Bill Holden makes clear in his rousing final speech, is pride -- what motivates a man to raise himself above the competition but also isolates him from his dreams and the ones he loves. Paul Douglas distinguishes himself as a sales executive who's being blackmailed (along with corporate playboy Calhern) by March into giving his vote over to him. Stanwych is the company founder's daughter, who has given up hope for living but finds it somewhere in Holden's speechifying. Touches on issues close to the post-war American heart -- how profit motives have replaced pride in workmanship, how an individual can live with his decision to make sacrifices that destroy his dreams. Worthy of notice.
Review of Executive Suite
