The Hucksters Reviews
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jjnxn
Super Reviewer
June 6, 2009
Great cast, Ava is breath taking. One of Gable's better post war films.
August 17, 2009
It was fun to catch this oldie. The story was a bit weak to me but the cast made it up in cannonballs. A real good Gable, and Deborah Kerr... well, if she's ever less than excellent I've yet to see it. Also Ava Gardner still in her "discovery" days. Perfect flick for a lazy afternoon or late night.
rickrudge
June 9, 2009
Victor Norman (Clark Gable) is a veteran, home from the war and anxious to get back to his work in the advertising game. One ad man, Mr. Kimberly (Adolphe Menjou) is interested in giving him a job but has Vic prove himself by getting a prominent war widow, Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr) to endorse a brand of beauty soap.
The owner of the Soap company Evan Evans, (Sydney Greenstreet) is a difficult, ball buster of a client and has his own ideas how he wants to sell his soap. Evan wants to produce a radio comedy show, hosted by a second rate vaudevillian, Buddy Hare (Keenan Wynn) and Vic needs to do all of the work that this entails. Vic is sent off to Hollywood to do Evan's bidding. Will Vic sell his soul to the Ad game, or can he still be his own man?
This is really a surprisingly good romantic comedy. Clark Gable's scenes with Eva Gardner are sizzling as are the ones with American new-comer, Deborah Kerr. This is well worth a look.
The Hucksters (1947)
Victor Norman (Clark Gable) is a veteran, home from the war and anxious to get back to his work in the advertising game. One ad man, Mr. Kimberly (Adolphe Menjou) is interested in giving him a job but has Vic prove himself by getting a prominent war widow, Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr) to endorse a brand of beauty soap.
The owner of the Soap company Evan Evans, (Sydney Greenstreet) is a difficult, ball buster of a client and has his own ideas how he wants to sell his soap. Evan wants to produce a radio comedy show, hosted by a second rate vaudevillian, Buddy Hare (Keenan Wynn) and Vic needs to do all of the work that this entails. Vic is sent off to Hollywood to do Evan's bidding. Will Vic sell his soul to the Ad game, or can he still be his own man?
This is really a surprisingly good romantic comedy. Clark Gable's scenes with Eva Gardner are sizzling as are the ones with American new-comer, Deborah Kerr. This is well worth a look.
Rodolfo
October 19, 2005
Actually, yes: "Original Cast Recording"
The order I am about the receive from Amazon contains [i]Broadway's Lost Treasure's Vol. III[/i], a collection of performances from Tony Award broadcasts. This one includes, among others, a number from the 1968 flop, [i]How Now, Do Jones[/i] (you think I make these titles up?) choreographed by Michael Bennett and led by Tony Roberts.
The other item from Amazon is actually a Christmas gift. That's right, Rodolfettes, I'm one of those people who starts Christmas shopping in December. Go ahead and hate me. I mean for a new reason.
On a completely unrelated note: Paul, please don't buy any hummel figurines before Christmas.
No reason.
Why isn't Chicago included when films get a limited release? We're the third largest city in the country, dammit!
So I haven't reviewed last week's [i]Veronica Mars[/i] and probably won't before tonight's ep. So that's another goal of steady reviewing that's down the tubes. The Garbo collection may follow. I haven't reviewed either version of [i]Anna Christie[/i] and it's been a couple of weeks. Stupid day job. Stupid bipolar disorder.
I got a part-time gig reviewing films for a website. Sadly, it doesn't pay but at least I get my name out there. The reviews are the same as the ones here, except the ones I do here have those personal touches we've all come to know and love. They only allow one review per film and somebody got to a few of them before I joined and naturally did everything all wrong. Robert Wise [i]did not[/i] co-choreograph [i]West Side Story[/i]!!!
Le sigh.
I'm reviewing [i]Proof[/i] for said website. I loved the play and had been looking forward to the film for ages. And now that I [i]have[/i] to review it: writer's block.
Last night, despite being exhausted and grumpy from work, I managed to do two loads of laundry, bake a banana bread and watched [i]The Hucksters[/i]. I didn't even turn on my computer when I got home and that's usually step one.
[i]The Huckters[/i] is from 1947 and stars Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Syndney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou and Keenan Wynn. It was directed by Jack Conway, who did the delightful movie with William Powell and Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy that was included in the MGM Classic Comedies boxed set but whose name escapes me at the moment and I don't want to look it up because that's cheating. But don't be fooled: [i]The Hucksters[/i] is boring as hell. It doesn't know if it wants to be a satire, a dark comedy, a romance or a straight-up drama, but at least it doesn't succeed on any level. There are occasions of brilliance: Menjou is terrific in a bitter monologue about how he achieved success and Wynn was hilarious as a hack comedian, but the only truly positive thing I can say is that the film inspired the title, of not the plot, if the Porky Pig/Daffy Duck cartoon, "The Ducksters."
Now [i]that's[/i] comedy.
[color=navy]Update: [i]Libeled Lady!!!![/i] It only took me 8 hours to remember.[/color]
Are there any more enticing words than "Your order has shipped"?
Actually, yes: "Original Cast Recording"
The order I am about the receive from Amazon contains [i]Broadway's Lost Treasure's Vol. III[/i], a collection of performances from Tony Award broadcasts. This one includes, among others, a number from the 1968 flop, [i]How Now, Do Jones[/i] (you think I make these titles up?) choreographed by Michael Bennett and led by Tony Roberts.
The other item from Amazon is actually a Christmas gift. That's right, Rodolfettes, I'm one of those people who starts Christmas shopping in December. Go ahead and hate me. I mean for a new reason.
On a completely unrelated note: Paul, please don't buy any hummel figurines before Christmas.
No reason.
Why isn't Chicago included when films get a limited release? We're the third largest city in the country, dammit!
So I haven't reviewed last week's [i]Veronica Mars[/i] and probably won't before tonight's ep. So that's another goal of steady reviewing that's down the tubes. The Garbo collection may follow. I haven't reviewed either version of [i]Anna Christie[/i] and it's been a couple of weeks. Stupid day job. Stupid bipolar disorder.
I got a part-time gig reviewing films for a website. Sadly, it doesn't pay but at least I get my name out there. The reviews are the same as the ones here, except the ones I do here have those personal touches we've all come to know and love. They only allow one review per film and somebody got to a few of them before I joined and naturally did everything all wrong. Robert Wise [i]did not[/i] co-choreograph [i]West Side Story[/i]!!!
Le sigh.
I'm reviewing [i]Proof[/i] for said website. I loved the play and had been looking forward to the film for ages. And now that I [i]have[/i] to review it: writer's block.
Last night, despite being exhausted and grumpy from work, I managed to do two loads of laundry, bake a banana bread and watched [i]The Hucksters[/i]. I didn't even turn on my computer when I got home and that's usually step one.
[i]The Huckters[/i] is from 1947 and stars Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Syndney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou and Keenan Wynn. It was directed by Jack Conway, who did the delightful movie with William Powell and Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy that was included in the MGM Classic Comedies boxed set but whose name escapes me at the moment and I don't want to look it up because that's cheating. But don't be fooled: [i]The Hucksters[/i] is boring as hell. It doesn't know if it wants to be a satire, a dark comedy, a romance or a straight-up drama, but at least it doesn't succeed on any level. There are occasions of brilliance: Menjou is terrific in a bitter monologue about how he achieved success and Wynn was hilarious as a hack comedian, but the only truly positive thing I can say is that the film inspired the title, of not the plot, if the Porky Pig/Daffy Duck cartoon, "The Ducksters."
Now [i]that's[/i] comedy.
[color=navy]Update: [i]Libeled Lady!!!![/i] It only took me 8 hours to remember.[/color]
Kay114
August 30, 2005
That scene is second, at least in this flick, to that exec frantically renovating for their spontaneous weekend getaway hotel rooms he didn't know went to seed: so obviously cute he's never picked a flower in his life.
The only reason "Hucksters" actually rates a 5 and 1/2 is the prescient commentary on radio is just short of timeless and the audience sees neither lead interact at length with the children crucial to the widowed mom's motivation.
Watching "The Hucksters" awake and happy still charmed me. The look on Clark Gable's face when his driven macho ad exec realizes laying in the prim war widow's arms is the best he's ever had it is almost painfully sweet. I couldn't tell whether the scene or Gable's offscreen loss of his wife made the moment more evocative.
That scene is second, at least in this flick, to that exec frantically renovating for their spontaneous weekend getaway hotel rooms he didn't know went to seed: so obviously cute he's never picked a flower in his life.
The only reason "Hucksters" actually rates a 5 and 1/2 is the prescient commentary on radio is just short of timeless and the audience sees neither lead interact at length with the children crucial to the widowed mom's motivation.
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