Patterns (1956)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Fielder Cook

Writers:

Rod Serling (teleplay)
Rod Serling (writer)

Release Date:

26 October 1956 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Ruthless Men And Ambitious Women...Clawing For Control Of A Billion Dollar Empire!!!

Plot:

Van Heflin stars in a story about big business and the ruthlessness at the top of the ladder.

Plot Keywords:

Businessmen | Fighting Back | Based On TV Movie

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Van Heflin	...	Fred Staples
Everett Sloane	...	Walter Ramsey
Ed Begley	...	William Briggs
Beatrice Straight	...	Nancy Staples
Elizabeth Wilson	...	Marge Fleming
Joanna Roos	...	Miss Margaret Lanier
Valerie Cossart	...	Miss Stevens
Eleni Kiamos	...	Sylvia Trammel
Ronnie Welsh	...	Paul Briggs
Shirley Standlee	...	Miss Hill
Andrew Duggan	...	Mr. Jameson
Jack Livesy	...	Mr. Vanderventer
John Seymour	...	Mr. Gordon
James Kelly	...	Mr. Latham
John Shelly	...	Mr. Grannigan

Also Known As:

Patterns of Power (UK)

Runtime:

USA:83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Jed Harris

Trivia:

Based on a teleplay by Rod Serling that ran on "Kraft Television Theatre" (1947) in January 1955. It featured several of the same actors that would appear in the movie, including Everett Sloane and Ed Begley. However the part of Fred Staples, the lead, was originated by Richard Kiley. Begley's character, Bill Briggs, was called Andy Sloane in the original version. Serling's teleplay won him the first of his six Emmy Awards.

Goofs:

Continuity: The dialog in the final scenes, starting with Staples' conversation with his wife in a coffee shop near his office, indicate the events take place well into the evening. However, the exterior shot linking this scene with Staples' confrontation with Ramsey in the Ramsey & Company building, as well as the exterior shot that follows the confrontation, were both taken in broad daylight.

Quotes:

Walter Ramsey: Name your terms. All terms are negotiable.
Fred Staples: I don't think so. Not mine.
Walter Ramsey: All right. I'd just as soon not waste any time doing trading. As of now, your salary is doubled. Your stock option is doubled right down the line. Your expense account is whatever you make it. Add to that a new title, vice president.
Fred Staples: I want a lot more than that. You're not going to take me on as just another vice president you can push around. You take me as someone who hates you down to the bare nerve. Nothing in the world will ever change that. I'll argue with you, contradict you and fight you every way I know how. I'll do everything in my power to push you out and take your place myself.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "American Masters: Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval" (1995)

Ruthless men and the women who support them

Well-done story of corporate shark, owner of a vast conglomerate, who tries to break the VP he thinks can no longer do the job. Everett Sloane plays the heartless owner who nurtures his executives with bitter words and daily shouting matches. Ed Begley plays the downtrodden VP; he's more than able to take care of himself, but after years of fighting with Sloane he's exhausted. He's 62 and afraid he won't find another job and refuses to quit; he's worked for the company for 30 years and believes he's got a place there. Van Heflin is the executive brought in to replace Begley, unbeknownst to them both. After Sloane tells him of his plans, Heflin tries to tell the boss that he doesn't want the job. Begley is his friend. But deep down, he finds that he really does want it, just not at that cost. After a particularly brutal meeting where Sloane taunts and belittles Begley, Heflin begs the older man to resign to save his health. Begley staggers out of the meeting and collapses in the classically designed hallway. Heflin's anger is magnificent to behold as he stalks in Sloane's office after the tragedy. He tells the boss what he thinks of him, but Sloane doesn't care. He knows he's a bastard but he has a business to run. Heflin resigns, but Sloane badgers him into staying. Heflin does, but his own gargantuan terms, which include tripling his salary and writing into his contract that he hates Sloane's guts and that he reserves the chance to slug Sloane on the jaw in the future if he so decides, just like Begley always wanted to. He's made his pact with the devil and come out with his pride and ego intact.

This is a man's movie. Serling never wrote from the woman's point of view, and the women in this film are there for their men but not real players. Beatrice Straight is tried and true as Heflin's wife. Elizabeth Wilson is Begley's loyal secretary who is transferred to Heflin, and feels like she should quit if she has to change her loyalties; she is remotely treated as a sort of junior executive, given some male qualities by Serling but not strictly one of his womanly pillars. When she begins to like her new boss, she instructs him in all the ways that Sloane will try to drag him down and helps him through the dark waters of executive suite life.

This is the same corporate America Serling later wrote about in Twilight Zone and Night Gallery; "Walking Distance", "A Stop at Willoughby", and "They're Tearing Down Tim Reilly's Bar" are his famous trilogy focusing on the career of a harassed corporate pawn who is driven to emotional extremes by the greed and bias of the company and it's president. They are supposed to be based on his own experiences with the upper echelon of the networks, which are still legend. A Serling script of any kind is great, and this film, while difficult to watch since there is so much backstabbing, is an excellent example of how true to life he could be, and how he always rooted for the underdog.