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Executive Suite

Executive Suite
Exec suite.jpeg
Directed by Robert Wise
Produced by John Houseman
Written by Ernest Lehman
Based on Executive Suite
by Cameron Hawley
Starring William Holden
Barbara Stanwyck
Fredric March
Walter Pidgeon
Cinematography George J. Folsey
Edited by Ralph E. Winters
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • May 6, 1954 (1954-05-06)
Running time
104 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,383,000
Box office $3,585,000

Executive Suite is a 1954 American MGM drama film directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman, based on the novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The film stars William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, and Nina Foch. The plot depicts the internal struggle for control of a furniture manufacturing company after the unexpected death of the company's CEO. Executive Suite was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including for Nina Foch's performance, which earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

This was Lehman's first produced screenplay, and its plot deviates substantially from the novel. He would go on to write Sabrina, North By Northwest, West Side Story, and other significant films. The film is one of few in Hollywood history without a musical score, although the song "Singin' in the Rain" is sung by Mike Walling while he is off-camera taking a shower. The song appears in many MGM films during the period when its lyricist Arthur Freed was a producer at the studio.

While in New York City to meet with investment bankers, 56-year-old Avery Bullard, president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major furniture manufacturing company in the town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania, drops dead in the street. As he collapses in the street, he drops his wallet. It is picked up by a bystander, emptied of its cash, and shoved into a wastebasket. Without the wallet, there is no way to immediately identify the body as Bullard.


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