The Hucksters
| The Hucksters | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Jack Conway |
| Produced by | Arthur Hornblow |
| Written by |
Luther Davis Edward Chodorov George Wells |
| Based on |
The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman, Sr. |
| Starring |
Clark Gable Deborah Kerr Sydney Greenstreet Adolphe Menjou Ava Gardner Keenan Wynn Edward Arnold |
| Music by | Lennie Hayton |
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | Frank Sullivan |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
115 mins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,439,000 |
| Box office | $4,445,000 |
The Hucksters is a 1947 MGM film directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable that marked the debut of Deborah Kerr in an American film. The supporting cast includes Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold and Ava Gardner. The movie is based on the novel The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman, Sr., a skewering of the post-World War II radio advertising industry with a racy backdrop for its day involving Gable and his alternating pursuit of Kerr and Gardner.
Victor Norman (Clark Gable) is a radio advertising executive just back from World War II and looking for a job in his old field. He literally throws a few loose dollars out the hotel window, telling the hotel valet that being down to his last even $50 "will help me seem sincere about not needing a job." On his way to his interview, he stops and spends thirty-five of them on a "sincere" hand-painted necktie.
His appointment is at the Kimberly Advertising Agency, with Mr. Kimberly himself (Adolphe Menjou). As the two size each other up, they are interrupted by a phone call from Evan Llewellyn Evans (Sydney Greenstreet), the tyrannical, high-volume chief of the Beautee Soap company, the agency's biggest account. The call throws the staff into turmoil and derails Vic's interview, so he offers to perform an unpleasant task for Kimberly: recruit Mrs. Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr), widow of a WWII U.S. general and of noble British birth, for a Beautee soap campaign featuring New York socialites.
A phone call to the Dorrance home misrepresenting himself as being from the "Charity League" gets him an appointment. At the elegant Sutton Place townhouse he rapidly charms Kay into agreeing, learning in the process she's not so well-heeled as the home and address suggest. But when they later arrive at the photo shoot, the Beautee art director produces a layout featuring "a loose and flouncy" negligee. Vic overrules the concept and directs a dignified portrait of Kay, in an evening gown, flanked by her children.
In the next day's maelstrom, Vic and "Kim" are summoned to Beautee's offices where they are confronted by Mr. Evans, whose first action is to expectorate heartily onto his conference table. He summarizes his philosophy on advertising: "You have just seen me do a disgusting thing. But you will always remember it!" He confronts Vic about the change to his Dorrance ad, and Vic tells him that "Beautee soap is a clean product—and your advertisement is not clean." When Vic plays the radio commercial he produced overnight—"Love That Soap"—Evans likes it and directs Kim to hire Vic. "You have your teeth in our problems," he says, removing and brandishing his own dentures. Vic finds himself attracted to Kay. When the two double-date with Mr. and Mrs. Kimberly, a belligerently drunken Kim confesses that he started his agency by informing on his mentor to government authorities and stealing the Beautee soap account. The featured performer at the nightclub the couples attend is an apparent old flame of Vic's, Jean Ogilvie (Ava Gardner), a torch singer he'd run into and chatted up at his first visit to the Kimberly agency just days earlier. She acts very familiar with Vic in front of his date, unsettling Kay. In the wake of an evening spoiled by Kimberly's behavior, Vic persuades Kay to watch the sunset together at the beach, where they grow close. In the morning glow he arranges a purportedly above-board weekend getaway for the couple at a seaside haunt in Connecticut he'd used for pre-war trysting. When Kay arrives and finds that the place has slipped under its new owner and that the pair have been booked into adjoining rooms with a connecting door she leaves, disgusted at the circumstances and profoundly disappointed in Vic.
...
Wikipedia