XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Glatpoti It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

IncaWelCar In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

SimonJack "The Hucksters" is an unusual combination of film genres, each with its own subplot woven expertly into the film. Based on a novel of the same name by Frederic Wakeman, this film is a biting critique of the advertising world. It is also a story about a returning war veteran who has a new sense of ethics since his war experience. It's a story about a young English war widow of an American officer who settles in New York with her two young children. It's not a romance, but a deep love story between the two. It's a story about fresh starts for people after the war. It's about big business, workaholics, tyranny and fear. And, it's about discerning values in life. It's a drama, love story and comedy of unequal proportions that mesh perfectly.All of these things come together in a brilliant story and screenplay. The direction, editing and technical production are superb. And, I can't imagine a cast that would be any better, or even as excellent overall. The main supporting cast are all lead actors in their own right.The story takes place mostly in New York, with a short stint in California. The time is early 1946 – several months after the end of World War II. Clark Gable is Victor Norman who has just returned to civilian life after the war. He had served four years in the Army, the last several months in the occupation forces in Germany following the May 8 end of the war in Europe. We know he was a captain by his uniform that the hotel valet mistakenly had pressed along with his civilian suit. The time is further verified by a letter that is read later in the film.Adolph Menjou is Mr. Kimberly, the head of the ad agency Vic hopes will hire him, "so long as it pays $25,000 a year to begin, with a promise of more … much more." Kimberly, his number two man, Cooke (played by Richard Gaines) and the whole agency staff are nervous, worried, on edge and upset most of the time. They live in fear of the company's largest client, Evan Llewellyn Evans played masterfully by Sydney Greenstreet. I have to say that of all the roles Greenstreet played, I enjoyed and liked his characters for who and what they were. But his Evan Evans is such an unlikeable and disgusting character. What a performance he gives. Deborah Kerr made her American film debut in "The Hucksters," and she too was superb as the widow, Kay Dorrance. Kerr already had an impressive list of roles behind her in British films, so she wasn't unknown to American moviegoers. The rest of the cast are superb in their supporting roles. Edward Arnold is Dave Lash, Ava Gardner is Jean Ogilvie, Keenan Wynn is Buddy Hare, and Gloria Holden is Mrs. Kimberly. Several other players have fine small parts. This all sets the stage for the story. It all comes out clearly in the first few minutes of the film, along with some good humor. But to tell how the story plays out from there would take away from its enjoyment for those who haven't seen it the first time. Suffice to say that this is a superb movie with an interesting combination of plots; and with a cast that is sure to entertain and please any audience. The year 1947 was a very good year for movies, and a number of social issue films were up for Academy Awards, along with a range of other good movies. "Gentleman's Agreement," was an excellent film starring Gregory Peck and it won best picture. I can't understand how "The Hucksters" didn't even receive a single nomination. The novel was a best seller, and the movie was a blockbuster at the box office. I think the story, screenplay, directing and supporting role of Greenstreet were especially worthy and equal to the quality of the films that received nominations in those fields. There is also one other thing that sets this film apart as satire. Most such films are filled with humor, and often have good doses of sarcasm, ridicule and parody. The satire in "The Hucksters" is much more subtle. While the film has humor, its drama, love scenes and other aspects tend to level it off so that the satire doesn't overpower the film. One note about the advertising business and the media. A reviewer whose comments I always enjoy surmised that this film was dated because radio was on the verge of being displaced by TV. Well, even when TV became the dominant media a few years later, it too thrived on advertising. While the mediums differed, the "huckstering" still went on. Radio "huckstering" today is much more by local markets; but it still gets a shot of national ads too. No, the world of huckstering has probably never been stronger, more obvious, and, I add, more tedious than it is today. I wonder if there still are tyrants like Evan Evans who think they know advertising better than the working professionals.

moonspinner55 Clark Gable is in good form playing an advertising ace, unemployed after spending the last four years in the Army, talking his way into a top Wall Street radio and print agency and landing the company's biggest account: Beautee Soap, run by a despicable, disrespectful tyrant. Sydney Greenstreet is the spitting, bug-eyed soap czar who keeps all his yes-men clucking like frightened geese, and his scenes around the conference table very nearly go over the top (but their payoff is in the finale); Deborah Kerr is a glamorous war widow whom Gable chases; and young Ava Gardner is well-cast as a nightclub singer--and Gable's rebound girl after Kerr plays tough-to-get. It's a slick, handsome piece of refined goods, not satiric as one might expect, though not quite stuffy, either. There are leisurely laughs, a cute sequence with Gable and Gardner on the train to Hollywood, and a satisfying wrap-up. If the picture doesn't exactly deliver fireworks, it does gives us Gable nicely contemplative, blowing kisses at the girls while at the same time re-examining his place in the work force. **1/2 from ****

bkoganbing The Hucksters, a really good film about the advertising game, became instantly dated almost from its release. A new box with both voices and pictures was invading American living rooms in 1947 just around the time this fine film was released. So a film about advertising for the radio became immediately dated.The situations and the ethics involved in those situations however are still as real today as they were post World War II.Clark Gable who had done three years service in World War II brings just the right dimension to the character of Vic Norman who is anxious to restart his career in the advertising game. But also having been fighting against tyranny overseas, you know it's only a matter of time before he and Sydney Greenstreet clash head on.I don't know what deal Louis B. Mayer made with Jack Warner to get Greenstreet over to MGM for his part as Evan Llewellyn Evans the soap king, but it was well worth it. Next to his movie debut as Casper Guttman, this is Greenstreet's best moment on screen. Greenstreet is the sadistic tyrannical head of a soap manufacturing firm who delights in making everyone jump at his slightest whim. The one who jumps the highest is Adolphe Menjou. This is also one of Menjou's finest roles as Kimberley the head of the agency that has Greenstreet's account and where Gable wants to work. Menjou is one ulcer driven man who started his agency with Greenstreet's account and has now worked himself into virtual slavery for the big money Greenstreet pays him. Menjou is quite an object lesson for where you could go wrong in the advertising game.Both Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner are in this film as Gable's love interests. This was Kerr's first American film and she basically set her image of refinement in this film. She's the English widow of an American general from World War II and Gable meets her by trying to sell her on endorsing Greenstreet's soap.This was Ava Gardner's first big role in a major film and even with a dubbed voice for singing, she's just fine as the nightclub singer who's got a big old thing for Clark Gable. This was the first of three films she did with Gable, besides Lone Star and Mogambo. Their chemistry is pluperfect.One of Greenstreet's whims is getting a radio show for a second rate burlesque comedian played by Keenan Wynn. Wynn himself has an interesting part. He's a second rate talent at best and you can see he really knows it. Yet he bluffs his way through life with a certain braggadocio which is charming in its own way.And Wynn isn't so totally offbase with his dream either. Five years before Buck Privates hit the screen, second rate burlesque comedians were what you would have described Abbott and Costello. Why shouldn't Keenan Wynn dream of their kind of success.Whenever I watch The Hucksters I'm reminded of Bewitched. Remember that Darren Stevens is also in the advertising game and half the plots of that show involved him dealing with a difficult client and Samantha working things out with a bit of nose magic. What was Bewitched in fact, but witchcraft and advertising.I'm sure dealing with Greenstreet, Gable wished that either Kerr or Gardner had a little nose twitch magic that he could have used with the soap king. Failing that he has to take a direct approach.And that folks, is something to sit through this very fine film to see.

telegonus The Hucksters has a lot of good clean fun with the advertising business of the 1940's. Clark Gable, newly discharged from the service, returns to his old haunts as an ad man and finds himself involved with two women, a tyrannical client, and an obnoxious, not too talented radio comedian. This is high class melodrama, and has some pretty good satirical moments, though I don't think that the guys who wrote it were as smart as they thought they were, it's a decent, watchable movie. One can see Gable slipping into middle age here, and though he seems spry enough, he's clearly not the man he was five years earlier, and I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner are attractive if otherwise unremarkable as the women in his life. Sidney Greenstreet does a nice turn as the sinister, demanding client. Keenan Wynn's the one to watch here, as the (so-called) comedian Gable must contend with; and he does a smashing job, managing to be pathetic, sympathetic and obnoxious all at once, not, I imagine, an easy thing for an actor to do. Worth keeping an eye out for: excellent production values from MGM's art department in its glory years. Marvelous sets, expert lighting. The movie is a pleasure to look at, if not always to listen to.