Madison Avenue

Curiously sedate and middle-of-the-road drama about cutthroat big business in the ad agency game. Dana Andrews plays hot-shot, ambitious public relations whiz in New York City who sees a fast track to the top: build up a second-string advertising firm in league with a dairy subsidiary to his largest account, Associated Dairy Corp., thereby giving himself an entrance to the big money when the time is right. Eleanor Parker plays the struggling agency's president-by-default who gets a make-over; Jeanne Crain plays a "jilted girl reporter" who may be trying to stab sometime-boyfriend Andrews in the back. This is one of many films which teamed Andrews with Crain, and they are very comfortable together, but the other performers fare much better with this minor material. Parker, in particular, brings some real flair to her role, Eddie Albert is very good as a befuddled corporation head, and Kathleen Freeman is terrific as the world's most efficient secretary. There's a bit of bounce in the direction and a terrific score by Harry Sukman, yet one gets the distinct feeling this was just a throwaway flick for 20th Century-Fox. The set designs (with a fetish for ships) and the art direction are dull, and the movie seems underpopulated and cumbersome. ** from ****

As far as I know this 1962 drama is unavailable on video but thanks to the Fox Movie Channel it is back in circulation. The always dependable Dana Andrews plays a big time "build-up man" who appears to be at the pinnacle of his ad man career when his boss double crosses him and he is forced to seek revenge by going to a rival agency. The story involves almost an excessive amount of crosses and double crosses but those who have spent time in corporate America should find these antics interesting if not thoroughly engrossing.

Visually, the film has the look of contemporary Billy Wilder widescreen B&W classics like "The Apartment" and "One, Two, Three" and while it is not in that pedigree it nevertheless keeps things brimming along for its running time. Many have suggested that its sexual politics (using sex to get what you want) are out of date. My view is that while some of the overt strategies of 1962 have evolved the basic premise still prevails.

Well, I must admit that I watched this movie, only because it is the last one directed by the bland and lame director Bruce Humberstone, who was far more inspired by this CHARLIE CHAN movies, back in the thirties, and some other features in the meantime: FURY AT FURNACE CREEK. His only and unique masterpiece was I WAKE UP SCREAMING, of course, and I have a bit tenderness for SOUTH SEA SINNER and the several Tarzan adventures he also made in the late fifties. So, I am totally amazed that he was involved in such a sophisticated drama speaking of business, business and business, where glamor shines by its superb absence.... What the f....happened to him, regarding to his filmography? Imagine John Ford finishing his career with a musical...But Henry Hathaway ended his with a lousy Blaxploitation movie.

Dana Andrews plays a rather amoral advertising man who is more of a promoter than anything else. Oddly, much of what he does throughout the film is done as a bet with another advertising man. To prove a point (a very VAGUE one), Dana goes to work for a very small advertising agency run by Eleanor Parker. Through all of his efforts, the small agency becomes a contender by lifting the very eccentric (i.e., possibly crazy) owner of a small dairy to national prominence. All the time, he tries to romance boss Parker as well as Jeanne Crain who he strings along very cruelly.

The film appears to be an indictment against the advertising world, though the way the film goes in the last 10 or 15 minutes rather muddles this point. Despite spending HUGE amounts of energy to best the man he is betting against AND despite being on the cusp of fame and fortune, Andrews' character then behaves so uncharacteristically and irrationally that I felt the plot really needed a re-write. It just wasn't convincing and I went from liking the movie initially to just wanting it all to end.

All in all, some very good actors were given a rather limp script. The overall efforts are watchable, but only just.

Dana Andrews is an ambitious public relations man in "Madison Avenue," a 1962 film that also stars Eleanor Parker, Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Kathleen Freeman, Howard St. John and Henry Daniell. By 1962, this was no longer an A cast, and this is a second tier film at best. Andrews romances reporter Peggy Shannon (Crain) and public relations firm owner Anne Tremaine (Parker) as he makes his way up the corporate ladder with the goal of landing a huge milk account away from his old boss. He becomes the puppet holding the strings of the head of the company (Albert) and, in a desperate attempt to keep the account, pimps out Anne to him in a not too subtle scene.

Though a '62 film, it's made in black and white and feels like a '50s movie - possibly because corporate ambition was a '50s topic with films like "Executive Suite" and "Woman's World." The acting is good but the story is slow in spots, and I felt at the end like the writer just decided to stop writing. The whole thing was kind of a shrug without enough bite or top level stars to make it really powerful.

Is it worth seeing? Yes, Andrews is solid, it's always worth it to see Parker and the always beautiful Crain, and a delight to see character actor Henry Daniell so late in his career. It's mildly entertaining, which is more than I can say about a lot of films made today.