"The Solid Gold Cadillac" is a very good comedy romance that stars Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas. But, unlike the plot of the 1950 film, "Born Yesterday," for which Holliday won the Oscar as best actress, this film is not one of many laughs. It doesn't have the witty and clever script with dialog that evokes laughter. Rather this is a film of humorous situations. Indeed, the very plot is a situation that begs for humor. And, it's dutifully supplied as much by a supporting cast that includes some of the best of the day. Fred Clark as Clifford Snell, John Williams as Jack Blessington, and Ray Colins as Alfred Metcalfe know how to bring out the funny very well.
Douglas plays his part as Edward McKeever pretty straight. He is an honest businessman who built a big corporation from the ground up. He disposes of his major ownership stock and semi-retires to go to work for the government handling defense contracts. The film was adapted from a Broadway play, and the time of the plot is during World War II. But the new men at the helm - Blessington, Snell, Metcalfe and others, are all something less than honest businessmen. The very opening of the film sets that up for the audience with George Burns narrating as the new corporate heads file into the board room for the stockholders meeting. The first one, he says, he wouldn't trust with a quarter. The next one, not with a dime. Then a nickel, and so on.
The opening showed the possibility of a comedy satire, but it didn't go any further than that. Instead, this becomes a comedy in which Holliday's Laura Partridge upsets the apple carts of the new men in charge. McKeever, in the meantime has headed for Washington, D. C., where he is overseeing wartime contracts. The boys back in the NY office are sore that he hasn't sent any business their way. The story comes to a head when Laura convinces McKeever that he needs to take back control of the company.
This is a good comedy with a slight and slowly developing romance. How it got the title it has is revealed at the end of the film. In my past, I knew two men who started their own companies and built them from the ground up to be very good manufacturing firms. They were honest and hardworking men whose efforts benefited their communities with many good jobs. But, when they were bought and taken over by big national firms, the companies' community presence, impacts and jobs declined substantially. That's not to say that the big corporations were dishonest, but it was clear that corporate greed overruled community concerns and care for workers.
After World War II and Korea, Dwight Eisenhower became president of the U. S. from 1953 through 1960. Ike had been the Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces in Europe during WW II. When he left office after his last term as President, he warned the nation about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex.
In the 21st century, the biggest new businesses started from the ground up are in the computer and communications media fields. With their power, they pose different types of threats - the control of information and freedom of speech. But, unlike the business successes of the past that took many years and decades to build, the new technical businesses have sprung up almost overnight as young entrepreneurs invent or discover a new or unique service to sell. And, those new wealthy corporate bosses don't have the experiences with work forces and communities, and are even more remote and removed from communities and the common man.
Douglas plays his part as Edward McKeever pretty straight. He is an honest businessman who built a big corporation from the ground up. He disposes of his major ownership stock and semi-retires to go to work for the government handling defense contracts. The film was adapted from a Broadway play, and the time of the plot is during World War II. But the new men at the helm - Blessington, Snell, Metcalfe and others, are all something less than honest businessmen. The very opening of the film sets that up for the audience with George Burns narrating as the new corporate heads file into the board room for the stockholders meeting. The first one, he says, he wouldn't trust with a quarter. The next one, not with a dime. Then a nickel, and so on.
The opening showed the possibility of a comedy satire, but it didn't go any further than that. Instead, this becomes a comedy in which Holliday's Laura Partridge upsets the apple carts of the new men in charge. McKeever, in the meantime has headed for Washington, D. C., where he is overseeing wartime contracts. The boys back in the NY office are sore that he hasn't sent any business their way. The story comes to a head when Laura convinces McKeever that he needs to take back control of the company.
This is a good comedy with a slight and slowly developing romance. How it got the title it has is revealed at the end of the film. In my past, I knew two men who started their own companies and built them from the ground up to be very good manufacturing firms. They were honest and hardworking men whose efforts benefited their communities with many good jobs. But, when they were bought and taken over by big national firms, the companies' community presence, impacts and jobs declined substantially. That's not to say that the big corporations were dishonest, but it was clear that corporate greed overruled community concerns and care for workers.
After World War II and Korea, Dwight Eisenhower became president of the U. S. from 1953 through 1960. Ike had been the Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces in Europe during WW II. When he left office after his last term as President, he warned the nation about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex.
In the 21st century, the biggest new businesses started from the ground up are in the computer and communications media fields. With their power, they pose different types of threats - the control of information and freedom of speech. But, unlike the business successes of the past that took many years and decades to build, the new technical businesses have sprung up almost overnight as young entrepreneurs invent or discover a new or unique service to sell. And, those new wealthy corporate bosses don't have the experiences with work forces and communities, and are even more remote and removed from communities and the common man.