The Hucksters is about sponsors and advertising agencies in network radio, in New York and Hollywood, circa 1945-47. It's about a time when radio is king (just before TV came in). Double-breasted suits and men's hats are in style. People wear tuxedos to go out to fancy nightclubs, and take elegant trains to cross the country - if they can afford to. And ad man Vic Norman (Clark Gable), just back from the war, is determined to make the kind of money that will give him such a comfortable lifestyle. He thinks he has it all figured out.
Vic goes to work for the Kimberly agency, which handles the Beautee Soap account. The big man who manufactures the soap is Evan L. Evans, a bully who has the ad men cowering because his account is worth several million dollars.
The Hucksters is basically about Vic's internal struggle while trying to make it in a soul-crushing business. It's about his relationships with two women (Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner), a kindly Hollywood agent (Edward Arnold), and a sub-par comedian, Buddy Hare (Keenan Wynn), for whom Vic must create a radio program on orders from the tyrannical Evans.
Unfortunately, the satire is not quite pointed enough, and the message seems muddled. I guess because it's a big, glossy, Hollywood product that's selling you the contrived stuff it's purporting to satirize. Billy Wilder or Joseph L. Mankiewicz might have had the guts and talent to really skewer Madison Avenue, and network radio in Hollywood. This film just does not have that knife-edged kind of satire. It tries to be both satirical and romantic, hard-nosed and sentimental. It doesn't really work.
On the plus side, the acting is pretty good. This was the big introduction of Deborah Kerr to American audiences ("It rhymes with star"), but you will probably remember Ava Gardner more. Keenan Wynn is good as obnoxious but clueless Buddy Hare, Sydney Greenstreet is appropriately gross as Evan Evans (even hucking up a big gob of spit onto a boardroom table, at one point), and Edward Arnold is sympathetic as agent Dave Lash. Adolphe Menjou is good as Kimberly.
I wouldn't say this is my favorite Clark Gable role. He seems a bit ill at ease in the film. He's certainly not bad in the role, but he's not the vibrant, vital Gable of the '30s. Of course he had been through the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, and had recently served in World War II as a middle-aged man. He displays a slight tremor, and looks pallid. But it's really that the role is not a perfect fit for him. And he's actually a bit too old for it, at age 45-46.
The Hucksters does have outstanding cinematography. The score, by Lennie Hayton, is jazzy, yet elegant. Jack Conway's direction is fairly sure-footed. It's all a bit too glossy, and not really as smart as it wants to be. But it's not bad entertainment.
Vic goes to work for the Kimberly agency, which handles the Beautee Soap account. The big man who manufactures the soap is Evan L. Evans, a bully who has the ad men cowering because his account is worth several million dollars.
The Hucksters is basically about Vic's internal struggle while trying to make it in a soul-crushing business. It's about his relationships with two women (Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner), a kindly Hollywood agent (Edward Arnold), and a sub-par comedian, Buddy Hare (Keenan Wynn), for whom Vic must create a radio program on orders from the tyrannical Evans.
Unfortunately, the satire is not quite pointed enough, and the message seems muddled. I guess because it's a big, glossy, Hollywood product that's selling you the contrived stuff it's purporting to satirize. Billy Wilder or Joseph L. Mankiewicz might have had the guts and talent to really skewer Madison Avenue, and network radio in Hollywood. This film just does not have that knife-edged kind of satire. It tries to be both satirical and romantic, hard-nosed and sentimental. It doesn't really work.
On the plus side, the acting is pretty good. This was the big introduction of Deborah Kerr to American audiences ("It rhymes with star"), but you will probably remember Ava Gardner more. Keenan Wynn is good as obnoxious but clueless Buddy Hare, Sydney Greenstreet is appropriately gross as Evan Evans (even hucking up a big gob of spit onto a boardroom table, at one point), and Edward Arnold is sympathetic as agent Dave Lash. Adolphe Menjou is good as Kimberly.
I wouldn't say this is my favorite Clark Gable role. He seems a bit ill at ease in the film. He's certainly not bad in the role, but he's not the vibrant, vital Gable of the '30s. Of course he had been through the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, and had recently served in World War II as a middle-aged man. He displays a slight tremor, and looks pallid. But it's really that the role is not a perfect fit for him. And he's actually a bit too old for it, at age 45-46.
The Hucksters does have outstanding cinematography. The score, by Lennie Hayton, is jazzy, yet elegant. Jack Conway's direction is fairly sure-footed. It's all a bit too glossy, and not really as smart as it wants to be. But it's not bad entertainment.