Executive Suite (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jul 30, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Robert WiseRelease Date(s)
1954 (June 24, 2025)Studio(s)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
During the 1950s white-collar dramas about office life were briefly in vogue—The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Rod Serling’s Patterns, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. Less well remembered is Robert Wise’s Executive Suite (1954), a very slick if now somewhat dated all-star drama. Nevertheless, it’s still captivating from the start-to-finish and genuinely suspenseful. Its story covers 24 hours of executive-level politicking and back-stabbing following the death of the president of a big furniture company, leading to a contentious vote among the company’s vice presidents to decide his successor. Though the outcome of the Big Vote is predictable, it still generates a lot of suspense, much in the same effective manner of later films such as Advise and Consent and 1776.
From Cameron Hawley’s 1952 novel, Wise’s film has no musical score at all and has an unusual opening: subjective camerawork from the point-of-view of (never seen) Tredway Corporation company president Avery Bullard leaving a meeting with investment bankers Julius Steigel (Edgar Stehli) and board member George Caswell (Louis Calhern). From the lobby of a New York City building he wires his secretary, Erica Martin (Nina Foch), calling for an executive board meeting that evening at 6:00, upon his return to Tredway’s Pennsylvania headquarters. He hails a taxi and drops dead of a stroke right there on the sidewalk. Caswell, hearing the commotion below, realizes what has happened, orders his broker to short sell as much Tredway stock as possible before word of Bullard’s death becomes public. This insider trading is both illegal and high-risk, as he can’t cover the trades unless the stock price plummets in early Monday trading. Meanwhile, at street level, somebody steals the dead man’s wallet, and the police initially are unable to identify him, complicating matters.
In “the tower,” the lavishly wood-paneled executive suites of Tredway’s headquarters, the company’s vice presidents gather for a meeting that will never happen. They are: Loren Shaw (Frederic March), controller; Frederick Alderson (Walter Pidgeon), treasurer; Josiah Dudley (Paul Douglas), sales; Jesse Grimm (Dean Jagger), manufacturing; and Don Walling (William Holden), design and development. When Bullard fails to show up they go their separate ways, many not receiving the news of Bullard’s death until late in the evening.
When word of Bullard’s death gradually reaches the executive board, the ambitious Shaw unofficially seizes power, making unilateral company decisions about press releases, the funeral, etc., without consulting the others, undercutting the senior Alderson, Bullard’s wingman, who’s loyal but not cutthroat as Shaw clearly is. Moving fast, Shaw buys Caswell’s vote by agreeing to cover any loss resulting from his short-selling, and he basically blackmails Dudley, threatening to expose his extramarital affair with his secretary, Eva Bardeman (Shelley Winters).
Alderson and Walling, recognizing Shaw’s ascension to the presidency would be disastrous for the company, seek support from Dudley and Grimm, as well as major stockholder and board member Julia Tredway (Barbara Stanwyck), daughter of the company’s founder and Bullard’s jilted, bitter mistress. But who has any chance of defeating Shaw?
The cutthroat environment presented in Executive Suite has dated only slightly. Key to this film’s story is that Walling, Holden’s character, and to some extent those of Alderson and Grimm, recognize that under Bullard’s leadership the company has steadily grown and returned substantial dividends to its shareholders while sacrificing the quality of its furniture in the process. A key scene has Walling talking with a factory foreman (Harry Shannon) who remembers founder Treadway refusing to cut corners, and how he’d angrily smash to bits furniture that didn’t meet his high standards. Shaw, meanwhile, is an extreme capitalist—nothing matters except the bottom line—not the quality of the merchandise, not the pride or well-being of its workers, not the community in which its factories reside—profit is all.
Of course, in the real world, certainly the real world of today, Shaw would absolutely emerge victorious; by modern standards with its Bezoses and Muskes, Shaw is almost quaint, and despite the story’s predictable, optimistic outcome, one easily imagines Tredway Corp. filing for bankruptcy a few decades later, their quality line of chairs and tables undercut by IKEA and other such conglomerates.
Produced by John Houseman on a, given its cast, modest $1.383 million budget, Executive Suite is handsomely made. All of the performances are at least very good, although de facto leads William Holden and June Allyson (as his wife) leave less an impression than the older, veteran actors. The almost always excellent Walter Pidgeon is terrific here; he’d serve very nearly the same function to the story in Advise and Consent as he does here. Though highly respected, Frederic March, for me at least, couldn’t hide his roots on the legitimate stage, his acting always visible even when it was good (in films like The Desperate Hours and Inherit the Wind); Executive Suite is a rare exception, creating a flesh-and-blood character instead of a performance. Shaw is underhanded and conniving in a way he thinks subtle and undetectable but obvious to everyone around him. In a nice touch, whenever he gets nervous Shaw sweats profusely, unconsciously wiping his upper lip. The also almost always great Louis Calhern is similarly oily and Nina Foch, nominated for an Oscar, also stand out.
The gimmicky direction at the beginning works, setting up the story in a visually arresting way without wearing out its welcome, while the absence of a musical score—the chiming of the headquarters’ cathedral-like clock used for aural punctuation instead—is also effective.
Warner Archive’s Blu-ray presents the film in its original 1.75:1 aspect ratio, favored by MGM (and Disney) for many years over 1.85:1, and its original black-and-white. The transfer is essentially perfect: razor-sharp and film-like, with rich blacks and excellent contrast. Indeed, the image is so sharp that there’s one unfortunate side-effect: Barbara Stanwyck’s wispy facial hair, practically a full beard, is highly visible, to the point of distraction. The DTS-HD Master Audio (2.0 mono) is likewise excellent, and supported by optional English subtitles on this region-free disc.
Supplements consist of material repurposed from a 2013 DVD release: an audio commentary by director Oliver Stone (!), the Tom & Jerry cartoon Hic-Cup Pup (in true HD), the Pete Smith short Do Someone a Favor (up-rezzed from standard def), and a trailer.
Very well made and still suspenseful and engrossing, Executive Suite is highly recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV