Marchands d'illusions

Very underrated. Not well known. Not shown often. Actually, this is the first time I came across this gem. Loved it, loved Clark Gable, loved Deborah Kerr.

Clark was just adorable when he was talking to the women he was attracted to. The twinkle in his eye and kiss on his lips as he spoke on the phone to the previous night's paramour in his first scene was priceless. I fell in love with him AGAIN! I never realized the vastness of his facial expressions before. He looked serious and business-like when he was dealing with his advertising cronies and looked charming, fun loving and caring when he was "off he clock".

There was no one more elegant, classy and sexy as Deborah Kerr. Nominated for 6 Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Awards but never winning, remarkable.

Ava Gardner always a sultry beauty, her quick, sharp dialog showed the high level of good script writing.

The film showed the falseness, conniving and corrupt side of advertising vs. personal integrity, ethical behavior and morality. Good life lesson film of the time rings true today, for me at least.

This has become a NEW personal favorite.

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.

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 ****

Gable's a commanding presence and appears in about every scene. His ad-man character Victor Norman is none too likable, but that's the way it should be, given the shark tank he's swimming in. I found the first part rather tedious as Victor bounces around socially and professionally to no particular purpose. The second part, however, picks up noticeably as the plot thickens. Vic's a self-assured man looking to make big money in advertising, but has his own uncompromising ideas on what sells. Thus, he's either a man of principle capable of better values, or a mercenary man who will only reluctantly sell out. Which of the two wins out emerges as the plot's crux.

Of course, being Gable he has to have an active love life, and that means deciding between the gentile Kay (Kerr) or the vibrant Jean (Gardner). Frankly, Kerr's given a basically one- dimensional role that doesn't hold much interest. I can see why she was afraid Gardner would steal the picture (IMDB). The movie's satirical part emerges with Greenstreet's portrayal of the caricatured soap kingpin Evan Evans. He presides over Beautee Soap's advertising interests like a gelatinous cretin, spitting on the table, tossing hats out the window, and dumping water on hapless underlings. It's here that the film makes a jolting statement about the industry, given Evans' unchallenged authority. At the same time, a reckoning between him and Gable's Norman shapes up as inevitable. All in all, the movie stands now as something of a curiosity, with lessons about commercialism that I expect still stand, whether radio, TV, or internet streaming.

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.