The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Film Review
ix to five Fellows
In Connecticut, the former WWII officer Tom Rath (Gregory Peck) and his married woman Betsy (Jennifer Jones) are happily married middle form couple with three children. However, they have financial difficulties and Tom commutes every day to Manhattan to work in a charitable arrangement receiving a depression salary.
Tom is tormented by the traumatic experience in war, where he killed seventeen persons including a young German soldier and he occasionally recalls his dear affair with the Italian Maria (Marisa Pavan) in 1945.
When Tom inherits his grandmother's house, her one-time retainer claims the existent state only using forged document. Meanwhile Tom is hired to work equally public relation of a television network and is assigned to write a speech to the owner, Ralph Hopkins (Frederic March). Before long he needs to decide whether he volition be a dedicated executive or 9 to v fellows. Further, he learns that he has a son with Maria and she is very needy and he needs to cull betwixt telling the truth to Betsy or proceed the clandestine.
"The Man in the Greyness Flannel Suit" is a realistic and humanistic drama near choices of an insecure man with a war trauma that oftentimes haunts him. Tom Rath sometimes is reluctant, thinking in the safety of his family outset, but ever takes the right determination supported by his love married woman Betsy. The story has many subplots and i memorable character, Gauge Bernstein, performed by Lee J. Cobb. The story is long but never dull. My vote is vii.
Title (Brazil): "Homem do Terno Cinzento" ("Man in the Gray Arrange")
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Powerhouse Cast in Fine Drama
X years afterwards Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones lit up the screen with their torrid honey-hate relationship in "Duel in the Dominicus," they were reunited in this engrossing business-domestic drama.
The 2 were surrounded by a great cast, headed by Fredric March and Lee J. Cobb, to offer a sincere portrait of a junior Madison Avenue exec who must choose between being a "big CEO" or a "2d-tier nine-to-fiver".
Manager/screenwriter Nunnaly Johnson guided the actors in uniformly well-modulated performances, all deeply felt and cleanly expressed. Keenan Wynn offered a surprisingly subtle and touching performance too, in a film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, with a Bernard Herrmann score.
What a treat it is to watch these fine thespians breathe life into most intriguing characters from Sloan Wilson's thoughtful novel.
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Amazingly developed and satisfying drama
Warning: Spoilers
While this is not one of Gregory Peck's more famous films, it sure deserves to be--particularly for its deep, complex and amazingly adult plot. Now I do non say "adult" equally in sleazy or violent, but considering the picture show dares to tackle the true trouble caused by overseas romances during WWII.
Peck is a superlative executive with his house and is happily married. Life is very good. However, unexpectedly, Peck discovers that he's got a child living in Italia. It seems that when he was there in the war, his brief romance had resulted in a child. He never knew that had occurred and existence a decent human being at heart, when he learns he tin't permit the child to continue as just another petty bastard. Despite every reason to pretend the child did non be (pressure from his married woman and dominate), he bravely did the right thing--and that is the essence of so many of Peck's greatest characters. They weren't perfect, but like Atticus Finch in TO Kill A MOCKINGBIRD, he acted fifty-fifty when it would have been and then much easier and safer to accept done zilch. A wonderful movie.
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Man deals with a new chore and an unsatisfied married woman
A man, feeling pressure from his married woman for a ameliorate lifestyle, takes a new chore with increased pay but added stress. To make matters worse, he becomes embroiled in legal actions concerning an inheritance from his grandmother. On top of all this, he learns that some of his actions in Italian republic during World State of war ii accept come to haunt him. This is a well told story with many sides to it, and I feel the use of flashback went a long way in making it even better. Well worth seeing.
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An Underrated Melodramatic Masterwork
Warning: Spoilers
"The Man In The Grey Flannel Adjust" (1956) is something we don't become from our cinema-going experiences anymore; an analytic and methodical glimpse into the issues of family unit strain that either drive u.s. to distraction or build our moral character. The film stars the quintessential man of integrity, Gregory Peck equally Tom Rath. He's a congenial adept natured admirer whose career doesn't seem to be living up to the expectations of his wife, Betsy (Jennifer Jones). Prodded by Betsy's nagging, Tom takes on a more lucrative position at an ad bureau, and then discovers that a part of his almost forgotten past has come back to haunt him. During WWII Tom and fellow soldier buddy, Caesar Gardella (Keenan Wynn) picked up a pair of Italian girls and had some behind-airtight-doors fun to alleviate the pressures of war and domicile sickness. That night results in the nascency of an illegitimate kid. What to do? Tell Betsy? Get to Italy? See the kid? What to do? Working from a masterful bit of authorship by Sloan Wilson, managing director/writer Nunnelly Johnson has brilliantly conceived a poignant cinematic reflection of a man pushed to the edge of his temperament, who decides to rising to the occasion rather than toss everything he's worked difficult for into the ash can. Gregory Peck is the very essence of manly integrity – a stoic charmer that completely satisfies and buttresses the whole film. Yes, the ending is a rather matter-of-fact conclusion to the whole quandary, and in a way conforming 50s sexual politics, but until then the story functions as something of a zeitgeist for honor, self-reliance and self-reflection in the every man that is sourly defective in any of our contemporary representations of cinematic masculinity.
The transfer from Pull a fast one on Home Video is, in a discussion, marvelous. It's Cinemascope (ii:35:1) and glowing from corner to corner in the rich vibrancy of 50s Technicolor. Transitions between scenes suffer from the inherent flaw of all early scope movies (a momentary degradation in color and sudden grainy characteristic). But this is a flaw in the original photography, not the DVD transfer. Colors are rich, sumptuous and assuming. Contrast levels are blindside on. There are rare hints of motion-picture show grain, generally in the war time flashback that uses actual newsreel footage. Contrast levels are as well a bit lower than ane would await during these scenes. Overall, the image will surely Not disappoint. The sound is remixed to stereo and recaptures much of the original vibrancy of six track magnetic stereo. Extras include audio commentaries, trailers and a restoration comparison.
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Workplace values under scrutiny
This moving picture from the 1950's goes across the conflict in balancing home and work commitments because it also deals with the loss of idealism by young people who become defenseless up with the demand to provide and the competition to succeed. Life seems to have gotten worse in the 60 years since this flick was made. In fact, some people, both men and women, have given upwards on the idea of family life in favour of success in the business earth. One tin only guess at the level of social dysfunction from our addictive and bogus work environments. In this movie, a bandage of infrequent acting talent provides great entertainment equally well every bit an insight into the shallow lives that many people began to lead in the 1950's. Jennifer Jones signals her dissatisfaction with her husband's piece of work ethic. This at first struck me every bit a yearning for a lost youth, wanting her married man Gregory Peck to provide for his family unit while keeping his knight in shining armour prototype. But Jones is no status seeker; she senses the boring conventional work globe that her hubby inhabits is not healthy for him or the family. Fredric March, that icon of American integrity, is the visitor Chairman. On the surface, he pays lip service to family values but struggles with his own estrangement from his married woman and a daughter's elopement. Peck learns from March as a mentor simply also in his failings every bit a man. Lee J. Cobb has a supporting role every bit judge and family friend. Towards the end of the movie, after some setbacks, Peck and Jones take a courageous step together that shows their own integrity and their maturity as a couple. The flick is a another landmark for the Globe War 2 generation who came dorsum to civilian life and encountered a new globe. It is one worth watching!
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A salient commentary on the American executive lifestyle
I was pleased to get a run a risk to see this movie -- at to the lowest degree half of it -- during a tour of insomnia. The title was a catchphrase for corporate America for many, many years, a kind of symbol for overachieving, aggressive, aggressive businessmen without principles -- in other words, the "suits."
Though I am generally wary of Gregory Peck's (and Jennifer Jones') tendency to niceness, I was impressed by their work here. Their relationship was both substantial and subtle. Jennifer Jones had much much more humanity and integrity than the average housewife portrayed in other films of the 50s and 60s. Peck's character respected her opinions and values.
Simply I was knocked out by Fredric March. His type A, workaholic executive was touching on many levels. His utter tiredness, alcoholic puffiness, and innate sadness was plastered over with a Willy Loman-similar veneer of gung-ho, jolly-good-beau false heartiness. How familiar that graphic symbol was and is -- in existent life. His ambition, greed and drive had become a addiction, and similar any junky, he was simply unable to quit. Despite the human losses. I volition never forget the scene in his office, when his wife calls him upward, and he slowly hangs up the telephone.
A very fine picture show, with many truths about our national graphic symbol and obsessions....
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You lot like Spam?
I was really surprised on this film as information technology was not at all what I expected. The championship suggested to me something near life in corporate America, but that was just a background to what was really going on.
The movie was really about men.
I certainly would not excuse the taking of the opportunity to take an illicit thing during wartime, merely I can empathize the longing for warmth and amore when you are so far away from home and feel that you lot life is about to end.
I was actually taken with the character's (Gregory Peck) cautious approach to life. I can empathize with him every bit he puts security and rubber for his family about the wife'south (Jennifer Jones) wanting someone to brand a difference. He was never really comfortable stepping out into a world where he did not know the rules.
I can certainly sympathize with him in the decision to be a nine-5 man instead of someone who builds. You don't always know the effect that can have on a family unit when forced to brand that decision.
Peck played an honorable homo, who tried to do the right matter for his dominate and his family. It was a fascinating moving-picture show, and I believe that every human cans see some of himself in Peck's character.
A lot of big stars from the era: Fredric March, Lee J. Cobb, and Keenan Wynn made the movie well worth watching.
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a swell movie in need of amend editing
I had trouble finding this film in the local video shop but finally saw it on television. It's well worth watching. Information technology'south a wonderful commentary on the American suburban corporate culture emerging in the years following the 2nd World War. Peck plays the stereotypical businessman living in Connecticut and taking the New Oasis Railroad into New York City each mean solar day. He is faced with a number of seemingly mundane dilemmas, such as settling a deceased relative's manor, how to deal with a dissatisfied wife more than ambitious than he, whether to switch jobs for ameliorate pay, and whether he should tell his new boss what he *needs* rather than *wants* to hear. Hanging over him are the ever-present memories of his wartime combat feel, which intrude on him occasionally – specially during those otherwise empty hours spent commuting on the train.
I disagree with the reviewer who found the film boring apart from the war scenes. 1 of the reasons why this motion-picture show works so well is that it regularly jolts the viewer, nearly lulled into complacency by the apparent ordinariness of suburban life, with those sudden flashbacks of the horrors of war. The juxtaposition of these quite different scenes was quite deliberate and speaks volumes in itself. How is it possible for someone who has spent four years both killing and avoiding expiry to settle into a normal life of family and work? Obviously it'due south non easy.
Furthermore, expiry continues to haunt the family in various, almost lite-hearted ways, particularly by way of the children who were born subsequently the carnage had ended and for whom death is no more existent than the gunfights in those television westerns to which they are so clearly addicted. A scene near the beginning has one of the girls suffering from chicken pox, a fairly modest malady, as everyone knows. Only she tells her father she has "small pox" and her sister keeps teasing her with the morbid suggestion that she is going to die. The father tells her to stop, only she keeps information technology up. He knows what decease is all about; his children practice non.
The term "workaholic" had not withal been coined in 1956, but the contrast between the homo who chooses a fuller, less driven life – including fourth dimension for family unit – and the man married to his career could not accept been more starkly portrayed. The viewers find themselves applauding the pick Peck eventually makes and pitying March for non having done so himself.
I am a great fan of the score's composer, Bernard Herrmann, whose music is uniquely capable of evoking a range of strong emotions in the listener. The music hither is typically Herrmann, although it is not as central a "grapheme" in this film as are his scores in, say, "Vertigo" and "Psycho." It is impossible to imagine the latter 2 films without the music, while this film seems less manifestly dependent on its score.
Although I quite liked this motion picture, it is overly long and could accept been better edited. The several subplots needed to be better integrated into the whole. What, for case, was the purpose of the challenge to Peck'due south inheritance, other than to show the persistent salvific role Cobb played in his life? This subplot could hands have been cut and the film would have suffered nothing in terms of its overall impact. In fact, it might have been ameliorate for being more tightly constructed.
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Suburbia circa 1950s
The novel by Sloan Wilson, in which this pic is based, offered an innovative view of the life in a minor "bedroom community" in the Connecticut of the 50s. Nunnally Johnson, the director, and adapter, tried to bring the essence of the book to a film that would make sense of the text. At times, Mr. Johnson succeeds, but the film he gave united states is a fleck dated when i looks at it today.
Granted, some things never change, but the conflicts that made the basis for this melodrama, take been dealt with, more finer in other, more distinguished films.
If you haven't seen the moving-picture show, perhaps you lot should stop here.
In the middle of the story we are presented with the epitome of decency: Gregory Peck. This great man was an splendid role player, his honesty exudes from every pore of his body. As Tom Rath, the former Captain of WWII, he has kept a hugger-mugger that comes to haunt him at a crucial point of his life. Tom is aggressive, but he will not play the game until the kind president of the corporation has a heart to heart talk with him, recognizing Tom is a rare commodity in the business world.
The film offers a view of the complexity that is the corporation, every bit we knew it so. Greed had not taken over concern even so. Merely what comes across clearly is the ambition of the people in the game of climbing the ladder of success.
Tom is happily married to Betsy, who shows signs that possibly she'll become either an alcoholic, or a Stepford wife. Her life goes into a tail spin because of the reality she must face in accepting what Tom has kept hidden inside. Betsy is not an endearing grapheme; she doesn't elicit our sympathy until the end of the film, in which she comes to have her lot in life. Jennifer Jones' interpretation of Betsy is non equally effective in this film, perhaps because of the direction given past Mr. Johnson.
The cast if first charge per unit. Fredric March and Lee J. Cobb, two of the all-time all fourth dimension actors of the American stage and screen give life to both of the characters they play. Seen in the pivotal role of Maria, Marisa Pavan, the gorgeous Italian actress makes an impression on us. Keenan Wynn, also, has a small, only important part in the film.
View this movie as a curiosity slice, as it has lost some of the entreatment it might accept caused when it start came out.
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One arrange that is far from empty
It is hard to not want to see a film with this proficient a cast. Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March and Lee J Cobb are reasons plenty to come across any film individually, seeing them together in the same film makes ane farther exciting. The story also sounded very interesting as did the themes. The mostly positive reviews promised a lot as well, despite seeing some slightly worrying criticisms at the same time. So 'The Homo in the Gray Flannel Suit' was seen in loftier apprehension.
'The Man in the Gray Flannel Accommodate' on the most part works very well, even if it did slightly disappoint. There are then many obvious skilful things, namely the performances, the emotional ability and the arroyo to the themes addressed. Exercise have to agree however with the flaws that have been cited, more often than not because of the overlength and step. Tin can encounter why 'The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit' may not piece of work for everybody, just do discover the appeal quite a lot more than understandable.
Will showtime with the good, as there is a lot more than of that than bad. The gear up pattern is attractive enough without swamping the drama, even if at that place is a lack of authenticity in some of the by scenes. Bernard Hermann has e'er been one of my favourite film composers, his score for 'Vertigo' is one of my favourite scores of all time, and information technology is here haunting and adds to the emotional power (without being overwrought) even if information technology is not quite a character of its own in the same style some of his other scores. There is proficient sympathetic direction hither, even if it is a bit sluggish in the legal subplot.
Script is intelligently written and thoughtful, too every bit written with a lot of sincerity. The story is by and large compelling, it was dauntless for 'The Man in the Gray Flannel Arrange' to address such heavy topical themes in the twenty-four hours and deal with it so straight and honestly without existence heavy-handed. So much so it does go emotional and at times painful to spotter (non in a bad way), furthermore the subject and themes have such relevance and truth today and then relating to what was existence handled was easy. The war scenes are powerful and they and the aftermath do really well at showing how much damage the state of war did to so many without trivialising.
The characters also felt like real homo beings, specially Peck's and March'south. The performances are all round fabulous. Peck did sincere meliorate than a lot of actors at the time and he shows that here in a performance that is towards his all-time and plays to his strengths. The other standout is March, equally the most realistic and most circuitous graphic symbol that he gives some poignant humanity also. Cobb breathes so much life to his character while likewise being reserved. Jones has a problematic character, the but 1 that was difficult to get behind, but gives it everything emotionally. Ann Harding and Marisa Pavan are touching in their roles.
On the other manus, 'The Human being in the Grayness Flannel Suit' does become on for much too long and ane does feel the length with some sluggish pacing. What would accept improved things were that if the war scenes were tightened up in the stride every bit they do run on for longer than needed and if the legal subplot, which was not very interesting and added next to cipher, was cut every bit others have said.
Although the sets are prissy, the camera piece of work sometimes does feel rather static and could really accept afforded to have been opened upward more to make it more cinematic. The ending felt anti-climactic.
Summing upward on the whole, a lot of bang-up just a few drawbacks making for a solid if flawed motion picture. 7/ten
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A "must watch' film
The Human being in the Gray Flannel Suit is one of my tiptop 10 films of all time. Yes, it's that proficient. You lot may have to spotter information technology twice to meet everything going on in the film. The cloak-and-dagger to watching this pic is to put yourself back into the same date and time. Remind yourself of what 1950's America was like ten years after the war. How Men that had served in the War were supposed to deed, acquit and go on with their life. How Women whom had been so of import during the war, has then had to go back to beingness housewives once again. All of the above will help 'prepare' you to go the about out of this film. Information technology is true of some films made and then long agone that they become dated. Goose egg could be further from the truth with this film. The struggle betwixt reality, expectation, duty, honor and honesty all play their part. The chemistry betwixt the characters is nothing short of perfect. Gregory Peck gives (in my stance) his best operation of any movie that I've seen him in. Jennifer Jones portrays the 50'due south housewife merely brilliantly. Fredric March is ane of the best character actors always and he nails this part as well. The cinematography, use of light and color is also first rate. Gregory Peck's character'southward use of dialogue is top notch and there are a lot of excellent scenes. Equally this motion-picture show was fabricated in 1957, there are a lot of things y'all accept to work out for yourself and which could non be said (due to censorship rules) - but that makes the moving-picture show all the more than intriguing. In that location actually is not ONE bad player in this film. Helen Hopkins is outstanding as the fragile married woman of a powerful executive. Even the couple's children play their roles very well and right down to the housekeeper/Nanny who will make y'all express joy. I hope this recommendation helps your conclusion in viewing this film - equally y'all'll be in for a very special care for. I guarantee y'all'll however be thinking/talking about it the next twenty-four hour period !
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Don't miss seeing this motion-picture show
A wonderful film virtually a returning WW II vet having trouble fitting back into society, and feeling similar a cog in some behemothic bike. He also has to bargain with flashbacks, and his indiscretion, which wind up affecting his marriage. A classic film. Should be on all Top 100 lists.
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Gritty and thoughtful melodrama
This motion-picture show is based upon an original screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, famous for his scintillating screenplays for THE MUDLARK (1950), MY COUSIN RACHEL (1952), and THE Three FACES OF EVE (1957). The story must take had a groovy deal of personal importance for him, because he chose to directly it (it was 1 of 8 films which he directed between 1954 and 1960). However, Johnson was not a great managing director, he was somewhat uninspired in that section and had few dynamic camera angles or sense of how to heighten drama visually, and in my opinion, he became too close to this story and textile, so that he lost perspective to a certain extent. The picture made a big hit when it came out, largely because Gregory Peck was the star. But the motion picture addressed a number of pressing social and moral themes in a direct and sometimes fell way, which was unusual for the fifties. And some of them are timeless, such as Peck's despairing comment about his wartime exploits as a Captain of a Parachute division: 'I killed seventeen men. Not people in the distance, but men I could wait at and encounter, including a young soldier whom I stabbed to death then that I could take his glaze.' By addressing the upshot of the traumas of the returned soldiers, haunting them still ten years afterward the end of the War, this film was very topical, and touched on the very themes which lay at the bottom of all the American moving picture noir of the tardily forties and the fifties. Some other reason for the interest in the pic at the time was because of the unusual treatment of Peck being employed in the newly created goggle box manufacture, a job yous went to in Manhattan in a adjust which was, ofttimes, grayness flannel (hence the championship). Jennifer Jones plays Peck's wife. Her office is surprisingly minor, simply most of it consists of her doing hysteria with tormented and streaming eyes, in the way she always did so well. Her husband Daryll Zanuck produced the film. There are good supporting roles for Lee J. Cobb, Keenan Wynn. Arthur O'Connell, Henry Daniell, and Gigi Perreau. (James Mason's daughter Portland Mason appears every bit Peck'due south daughter, but has piddling to exercise.) The Italian extra Marisa Pavan is first-class during a flashback section of the film equally the sugariness Italian girl with whom Peck has a honey thing in Rome in 1945. She was the twin sister of the actress known as Pier Angeli (their real surname beingness Pierangeli). They both specialized in being the innocent Italian girl with the large trusting eyes who was capable of a smashing love, and there are some Italian girls who really look like that and really are like that, though less at present than formerly. At that place is a 3rd sister besides, Patrizia Pierangeli, 15 years younger than the twins, who appeared in 8 films between 1972 and 1985. The other major part in the film is played with his usual dignity and thoughtfulness past Frederic March, as the rich head of a broadcasting corporation who hires Peck and whose barren and troubled private life is a major part of the story besides. (The major theme there is his sacrifice of a personal and family life in order to become a business moghul.) This film sprawls both in time and in space. Numerous major plot problems are walked away from at the cease of the motion picture and left entirely without whatsoever resolution. It is as if Johnson really needed a TV mini-series to get his complex stories told properly, and just had to cut information technology short. As information technology is, the moving picture is a mammoth ii hours and 33 minutes long. I would say that this was a well-meaning and securely-felt project which partially failed, simply its fractional success is worthwhile. Later on all, films with a bulletin are never that common at the best of times, and this was in the fifties era when so many issues were dodged by the social hypocrisies of the time. Congratulations, therefore, to Nunnally Johnson'south ghost, for having tried very difficult indeed to become serious near matters which were only non faced back and so.
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Very serious and concerned soap opera...
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Such a considered movie. And such dandy scenes deflated by overambition or past simply enough implausibility to undermine the sincerity needed to work. It's non uninteresting. It's not even bad in any way.
First, what works? A stylizing non from Douglas Sirk, with a slightly exaggerated truthfulness to deeply personal affairs. It'due south a beautiful flick, well paced, well seen. Information technology has some wonderful acting. Not only is Gregory Peck his usual steady, if slow, persuasive cocky, a paradigm of admirable poise, merely the surrounding cast is underplayed (mostly) and sharp. The fashion the acting (and set up design--such moderne article of furniture!) make upwards that world is convincing fifty-fifty as it is arch. It really makes Mad Men a bit lame in the long view.
But at that place are flaws. 1 is a pace that is slow in order to seem measured, or as I say, considered. Everything is quite of import fifty-fifty when information technology is pocket-sized. We are to feel the misunderstanding between father and daughter, we are to really sense to empty and rather meaningless corporate world that is the principal backdrop. And we practice. If y'all get captivated, all is well. Merely the war flashbacks seem false. It's not a state of war film, I know, but if that's the case, we are at a loss how to look at the state of war sequences (which are important and long) with any seriousness.
Which brings upwards a more than subtle and pervasive problem: the overall timing of the bug if off. The key crisis within Peck'south character is a resolving of his war time experiences, good and bad (mostly bad, I estimate, but he had a beautiful dear affair and child, too, which can be seen as proficient). He struggles with this and the issue gets forced into the family of his wife and children. But the war was over ten years earlier. He fifty-fifty says this at one signal, that it'southward so long agone, why are people so concerned? And however it affects him in the aforementioned way fictional characters in late 1940s movies are affected. I remember the flashbacks can be real a decade or two later, but the social adjustments seem delayed to me.
Jennifer Jones is quirky in her office here, and I came to encounter, especially after she blows up at Peck in one scene, that she'due south quite perfect and vivid every bit a 1950s mom and wife. Frederic March is actually bright as a wise but troubled crumbling executive (a reminder why he was once such a convincing leading man). And Lee Jay Cobb gets a plow equally a lawyer, giving information technology some life. Everyone is quite adept, in fact, except the two servants--the odd older nanny for Peck'due south kids and the troublemaking onetime servant threatening a lawsuit. At that place are a few odd turns that are attempts at humor, and they don't work. The proficient sense of humor is enough to keep the flick from unrelenting somberness. An interesting transition into the culture of the later on 1950s.
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Man in the Gray Flannel Well Suited ***1/ii
Gregory Peck relives his war experiences as he tries to settle down to a normal being every bit a civilian following World War 11. Move over, Frederic March, ("All-time Years of Our Lives" and also in this flick as well,) Peck has other problems.
It seems that he fathered an illegitimate child while in the service. The mother wants Peck to assist out financially.
News of this indiscretion is a natural shocker to wife Jennifer Jones, who reunited with Peck after the memorable "Duel in the Lord's day." Screaming and beside herself at first, Jones comes to realize that helping the child is the right thing to practice nether the circumstances.
Lee J. Cobb, a great under-rated histrion is tops equally Guess Bernstein, who will work with Peck to provide for the child.
A wonderful pic depicting a moral dilemma.
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a film for all generations
This film reaches far beyond its time. In every fashion, shape and class; from the troubles to the triumphs of the protaganist, to the intensity and sincerity of its ethos, this cinematic work is an under exposed classic. Information technology is my promise that this film be rediscovered and in doing so help those lost in a sea of moral relativity to notice depiction. The story cleary exposes the moral and emotional importance of honesty and its consequences. Additionally, the event of war-time trauma is touched upon and its long-term touch on on personal and professional relationships.
The performances by all are outstanding and will resonate with the viewer dramatically. Every bit a gen x'r, I found this film to be a breath of fresh air. I am non alone. I pray that this story will be recirculated - for its impact is profound.
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Corking Movie on Simulated Man Versus Honest Man!!!
Gregory Peck'south grapheme Tom Rath is dishonest on several levels and his married woman Betsey (Jennifer Jones) knows it!
At the films beginning, she says "You lot've changed!"
Through several flashbacks, nosotros see some Tom Rath's rough war life. And Jennifer Jones pushes him to attain, and become for the ameliorate job, but maybe it's considering she KNOWS she doesn't accept his whole heart, as she one time did. And he'due south losing his moral backbone likewise!
Work---Will he exist a "yes" human or will he tell his boss the truth? Home---Volition he tell his married woman the truth about his war past? And how volition they deal with the consequences??? Family unit vs. Work--Volition he be a "9 to five" man? Or will he climb upward the corporate ladder with a dominate who admires him???
Great supporting part by Frederic March, as his boss... ----- DVD has great commentary by James Monaco, who was in his youth in the l's, and a man unknown to me but a media and film expert (per the website he gives out at the cease). He mixes standard motion picture commentary with relevant "life in the 1950's" details.
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Sprawling Story Doesn't Pull Well Together
Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones who 10 years before lit upwards the screen in Duel from the Lord's day gather again for a moving picture that's as far removed from that classic as George Washington to George Bush-league.
The Human being in the Greyness Flannel Adjust just doesn't translate well for the screen. A whole lot of plot elements, some in themselves could exist movie subjects, don't quite mesh together to make a whole film.
Gregory Peck is Mr. Fifties typical suburbanite with the wife, iii kids and a mortgage and looking to practise better for himself and his family. One of his commuter friends, Factor Lockhart tells him of a job opening at a Television network and he applies for it. The caput man, Fredric March likes him enough, but Peck arouses the jealousy of others in the place similar Henry Daniell and Arthur O'Connell.
He's also got an inheritance problem when he gets a sprawling estate from his grandmother and then her caretaker, Joseph Sweeney, looks to contest the volition. And he'southward got something dropped on his doorstep from his World War Two service as a result of a wartime romance.
Some parts of The Human being in the Grayness Flannel Suit are nicely done. My favorite moment in information technology is when Lee J. Cobb playing a judge in an informal hearing in his chambers deals rather nicely with the issues Sweeney raises.
Fredric March as the communications tycoon is drawn from William Due south. Paley of CBS and does very well. I'm not sure why his family unit problems get put into the story. He's having issues with his rebellious teenage daughter Gigi Perreau. That could have been a picture unto itself.
Even the wartime flashbacks could have been a movie plot easily. Keenan Wynn as Captain Peck's sergeant and Marisa Pavan as his wartime inamorata practice very well in their roles. I wouldn't exist surprised if this wasn't inspired by Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby.
Jones and Peck still accept a lot of proficient chemical science left over. I wish they had been given a more coherent story to human activity in.
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A Great Moving-picture show That Shows How Empty Our Lives Are
It's amazing this moving picture came out of the 50's. It's even more true today, than it was then, now things are and so rigidly stratified in our guild that people tin can't even relate to considering being a Workaholic annihilation other than 'worthwhile' and 'normal'. Rat Race lifestyle, is all America is almost at present. Misery, stress, breach, isolation; slap-up fabric wealth simply a dysfunctional society that has made little robots and zombies out of each of us. Remember how vibrant y'all felt as a kid, how full of wonder? Remember beingness excited well-nigh the chance to play with other kids? Now nosotros dread every minute of our lifestyle, yet still grin and say "things are going okay" when asked. What liars we have become. A culture of liars and cruel, roughshod people, with plastic smiles frozen on our faces and our deep heartache and longing hidden away. This film shows that America has been on the wrong path for a long time and it's only gotten worse. Great film!! Peck is adequate, but considering the times he lived in, a pretty good performance. It's the writing and the letters of this film that stand up out!!
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Clothes Casual
Proficient one-time fashioned quality entertainment that pays for itself and does one other thing. Gives more than than information technology gets. You can give thanks the star power likewise as good story and directing which when lined upward correctly does a good chore in making people like me write adept reviews gladly. It also attracts people like you who similar to read them. This is an unusual story merely like shooting fish in a barrel to relate to equally it involves a human being, his family and his trying to get alee in a traditional conventional way. This is the typical 1950's work hard, raise a family, buy a dwelling house and get a good job because yous tin can thanks to America. That is what makes u.s.a. relate and stay involved every bit to what unfolds on the screen. This film does something else of which I am a fan of. They tell a good story within another story. Some Directors utilise this tool better than others. Here, information technology is done but correct and helps u.s.a. to place amend with the characters portrayed. It has been said that when you come up to know someone, you stop judging them. Here, we get intimate with the lead thespian played by Peck and we really start to intendance and even root for this man. Pay attending to the salary negotiations in the pic when Peck tries to climb the business ladder. The amounts they are dickering about pale in todays social club merely were relevant and appropriate back then. The dynamics of the interview haven't inverse however. Truth, integrity, honesty and implying one thing while saying another in an artful way is the improve mode to interview and to succeed. This movie proves that point. The globe war two scenes help us to remember that the 50'due south were made up of returning veterans filling up whole neighborhoods and chore stations. The armed forces back so didn't provide the type of grooming they practice now but was yet considered worthy to say that y'all had that experience with emphasis of serving your country being the main point. A dilemma comes up that is handled very well after much discussion and emotions. Look forwards to that. The ending is set-up very well making a point that still holds today considering of its personal importance and contribution to order equally well. Skilful leisurely snack moving picture of your choice, a tasty drink and even a four-course repast highly recommended. Practiced stuff
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Fascinating
In my youth i boycotted the grayness flannel universe and missed seeing this motion moving picture. Jennifer Jones' Mrs. Rath is one very good reason to be happy well-nigh this (face goes ugly and sinister when "intense" i.e. pushy & forceful). But Frederick March'south performance as Mr. Hopkins is remarkably deep; he could have mellowed me out a piffling politically and philosophically, and i'm sorry i didn't catch his performance sooner. Gregory Peck is uncanny in his ability to play every emotion with the express range of gestures allowed a totally pent-up, cocky-controlled man. I note mainly that the movie is a virtual textbook on what was defective in the self-centered American woman hooked on her ain appetites and cocky-compassion. One thousand finale, she goes self-righteous. Marisa Pavan's Italian girl is, by contrast, lovely and hauntingly tender. (In vowing he has forgotten her and declaring that he worships his married woman, does Tom Rath emasculate himself?)
The fifties loftier style look is a piece of blueprint history, again, showing the American attempt at copying European way. For the fabulously wealthy, Oriental fine art. In the boardroom, Bracques. For the upwardly mobile, change of residence. Nunally Johnson captures all this faithfully. The motion picture is a time capsule, together with a remarkable view into a man'due south mind in its social context. The presence of the Tv gear up and appearance as medic by DeForest Kelley ("It can't exist!" i thought, when i heard "This human is dead, Captain.") make the movie prophetic. The African-American sergeant too provides an insight into the human versus the proto-grayness-flannel (affluent WASP). The gray flannel universe even so exists, but what flick maker can penetrate it and show its emotional helplessness the way Nunally Johnson did in 1955-56? This motion picture almost makes it, but the parts with Lee J. Cobb as a kind of legal guardian angel seem designed to please the audience, to soften things for the audience. What do you retrieve?
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Strangely wearisome and interesting at the same time!
Nunnally Johnson is a good author - but maybe non such a skilful director. This film is so dull to look at that it most dies. The Cinemascope frame makes it look all the duller, and the cheap, fake sets wait very, well, cheap and imitation!
But the fundamental idea here is fascinating. The pic takes a serious look at how difficult it was for men to return to ordinary everyday existences after the horror of the war. Gregory Peck is fine in the lead role, but Jennifer Jones is a fiddling shrill as his wife.
The supporting bandage is first-class. Fredric March gives one of his all-time performances as Peck'due south troubled boss - and Ann Harding is sensational every bit his unloved married woman. And Henry Daniell as Peck'south business organisation rival almost steals the film.
Simply the pic is fashion over-long and the catastrophe very trite. Still worth a look.
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Very interesting melodrama
Warning: Spoilers
This is sort of an unusual melodrama, told in an unusual style involving a lot of extended flashbacks that tell united states of america the life story of the titular (apparently) generic function worker Tom Rath (Gregory Peck). Embroiled in domestic disputes with his wife (Jennifer Jones) about money, Rath tries to switch to a more enervating corporate chore and finds himself defenseless up in even nastier office politics involving the company president (Fredric March) and a pair of back-stabbing upper executives (Arthur O'Connell and the always nasty Henry Daniell). When a former war buddy (Keenan Wynn) brings him news that he has a child in Italy, his whole life threatens to fall apart before his eyes while he struggles to do the right thing.
This is a morality play without a articulate moral. The hit thing well-nigh the flick is the way that it puts themes above narrative consistency. There's no real narrative connecting the plot with March and his girl (Gigi Perreau) to the plot with Peck and his family unit. Just the thematic connections become pretty clear at the terminate, when Peck decides non to place his work above his family the way March's grapheme did. As a effect, the film does feel at times unfocused. I kept wondering as I was watching information technology, what was the point of diverse scenes that didn't seem continued to what I had just seen. I do think this is a sort of weakness, but information technology'southward and then unusual that information technology's praiseworthy as an attempt.
March does some really good acting here... I dearest how he plays the same scene differently with his girl and with Peck, whom he tries to make into a surrogate son. Perhaps he's a fleck too benevolent though to exist actually convincing as a corporate kingpin; all the heavy lifting must be done by O'Connell and Daniell. In Peck he sees someone with a skilful heart like himself, but ultimately he can't convince Peck to make the kind of sacrifices necessary to become his correct-hand human being.
Peck and Jones don't take much chemistry in my opinion, which is the biggest flaw of the moving picture. I was much more interested in the scenes in Italian republic with Marisa Pavan, who has a wonderful smile and good chemistry with Peck. In an odd mode, that enhances sure aspects of the film but makes the conclusion seem pat. Jones seems to be tapping into the same well that she dug with Vincente Minnelli when they made "Madame Bovary" together -- the frustrated housewife with aspirations to some kind of graceful life that eludes her. But "Madame Bovary" is a story where we might sympathize with the vain female protagonist almost in spite of herself, while this film seems to want to push her down our throats. To me, her complaints about the business firm in the beginning seem extremely petty. What exactly is wrong with the house? I would dream of living there. But middle class definitely isn't practiced plenty for this heroine, and I tin can't really understand why. She puts their unabridged family unit in danger to join the upper echelon, and the movie seems to expect us to respect her for it.
There are some good grapheme performances too, especially the always-reliable Keenan Wynn who provides a disarming blue-collar dissimilarity to the proceedings. When he tells Peck that he noticed him the first day he showed upwards at the office, but thought that Peck might have been giving him "the high lid", it's heartbreaking in a coincidental kind of fashion. Wynn was brilliant at knowing just how much pathos to put into a scene similar this. Lee J. Cobb, another neat character actor, lends his gravitas to the role of Gauge Bernstein, the forcefulness of respectability.
I enjoyed the motion picture quite a scrap for its restrained manner and its downwards-to-earth mood. I don't discover its motion picture of domestic elation totally disarming, but it's a nice attempt to evidence the complexity backside the ostensibly "normal" American worker and family. Information technology explores many of the same themes that permeate the darker law-breaking films of the mail service-state of war era ("film noir") -- in that location's that remarkable speech where Peck talks nigh waiting for the Fifty-train one morning time and killing people the next, and so next affair yous know you're waiting for the L-train once more -- without engaging in those films' hysterical Gothic tendencies.
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An honest man tries to brand ends meet AND keep his integrity in the American rat race
Alarm: Spoilers
the reviewers who institute the plot overly complex and disjointed seem to have missed the point of the pic, i think. this is the story of a decent guy, straight out of a Frank Capra story (this could've been a Capra film starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly), who finds that information technology is difficult to raise a family and keep ones integrity in the American rat race, i.due east. life IS complex and bug come from all angles. perchance it helps to be able to identify with the main characters, married with kids, mid-life, struggling to stay in a higher place water, suddenly realizing that any dream other than getting out of debt seems to be slipping beyond the attain of this lifetime, disreputable rats effectually each corner trying to take advantage of you. no clear manner to tell the rats from people with honest concerns, etc. i thought this motion-picture show striking the nail on the caput, and the scariest office was that information technology was made FIFTY years agone (sort of like watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and realizing it was made nigh SEVENTY years ago), and we know the rats have honed their methods in the interim. in fact, my only disappointments were the twin deus ex machina's in the form of the approximate and the boss. thus, Tom Rath's (Gregory Peck'south) solution is non an entirely intrinsic one, simply one that benefited heavily from a couple of good-hearted people in key positions. that might be too much to hope for in today'south America where guys similar George Bailey would exist labeled as "unpatriotic liberals" and anybody who succeeds in the arrangement seems to pay zippo more than lip service to the morals of Tom Rath. ix out of ten.
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