Marchands d'illusions

Forget that this film was made in 1947, or about radio advertising. This film is about all tyrannical bosses, liars, and propaganda which have existed years before and after this film was made. This The state of current American politics is sold to the public, much the same way as the Soap was sold in this movie.

An aging Gable proves his abilities as an actor in this film. Some comments call his a liar, but by definition, a liar is someone doesn't tell the truth under oath. When you work in a business such as advertising or politics when the best "liar" wins,lying is an asset, not a negative moral judgment. Anything, short of murder is considered OK.

I rate this film a 9 because it artfully shows the "huckster" meeting a "real lady" played by Debra Kerr. She is not your average 'war widow" Her husband was a General, she is from English Aristocracy, and has two young children. When the film begins-the two complete opposites clash but fall in love. Perhaps what saves Gable, and makes him attractive to Kerr is his four years of service during WWII.

Gable has seen men die, and seen fear for one's life which changes his perspective. One of the best lines is when he tells Ad firm boss(aptly played by Adolph Menjou that he saw more courage in the men at Normandy than he saw in the reaction to Sydney Greenstreet who plays the largest client in the firm.

Desite Gable and Kerr's differences, and the injection of a very attractive and young Ava Gardner, Gable and Kerr fall in love.

The only reason I would not give this movie a "10" is due to the ending. Eventually, all men must make their living, and compromise with your boss or your customers is sometimes necessary. I found the ending a bit too sanctimoneous. In real life, Gable would have taken the job working for a despicable character played expertly by Sidney Greenstreet. Most of us have to face people like Greenstreet's character. The trick is keeping the job to pay the bills and keeping your self respect without running away from the job. There have always been Sidney Greenstreets.

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.

This film is a very cynical look at the advertising business. Gable plays a slick liar who could charm the stripes off a snake who sets out to charm a widow for his own ends. However, over time he grows to hate himself and his sleazy business--ultimately culminating with a confrontation with the revolting and incredibly disgusting Sidney Greenstreet! Speaking of Mr. Greenstreet, he is FABULOUS in the film as the president from a soap factory with no soul. You MUST see the segment when he is first introduced, as it is one of the most memorable and disgusting scenes in the 1940s! You gotta see it to believe it! Also notable is the performance of a young Keenan Wynn as an obnoxious and untalented star. He does a good job of being annoying!

Clark Gable made several comedies in his career, some of them quite funny (such as TEACHER'S PET). THE HUCKSTERS was one of the funny ones that still retains it's edge. It is considered dated by some because advertising is taken for granted in the modern day world, but if you consider that mass advertising actually goes back to the newspaper and magazine explosion of the late 19th Century THE HUCKSTERS was only bringing the story up to date in post World War II America.

What sets this film above other attacks is the acting of Gable, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold, and (best of the group) Sidney Greenstreet as the evil Evan LLewellyn Evans, the soap king. The film does look closely at the running of the advertising world inside an ad firm - quite a different look from the normal in any Hollywood film up to that time.

Basically the film shows how everyone jumps to the tune of the rich client (here the manipulative and sadistic Greenstreet). Gable has some values, and he slowly is corrupted sufficiently by dealing with Evans and Menjou to drop them. The key scene is when he blackmails Edward Arnold to do something unethical. Subsequently we realize that this never sits well with Gable, as Arnold's character in this film (for a change) is a rather decent guy. It does lead to his final act of independence - one of the best moments in Gable's and Greenstreet's film careers.

Keenan Wynn has always been underrated. He was a very good dramatic actor (witness his performance in THE GREAT MAN) and very amusing as a comedian (as in MY DEAR SECRETARY and DR. STRANGELOVE - two different approaches to comedy by the way). His father was Ed Wynn, one of the great Broadway clowns of all time. It is easy to see how he got his sense of timing. But what makes his role here as Buddy Hare, the second rate comic that Mr. Evans thinks is the funniest man in the world, is he is dealing with a man who has weak material to begin with, and delivers it with gusto that we can't stand hearing. Witness the joke about a man painting the front door of Buddy's home with black paint, and Gable's Vic Norman drops the obvious punchline on him. Eddie smiles weakly acknowledging that it is bad material. This is done so well, we end up liking Eddie (even if we wish he'd take his material and go away).

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 ****