By all accounts "The Hucksters" is a watered down adaptation of a contemporary novel which scabrously attacked the mores of the radio advertising industry in post-war United States. Watching the movie, I think you can see this dilution with its bittersweet but still happy ending as would-be advertising executive Clark Gable firstly gets the enviable choice to make between Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner and secondly has to rediscover his backbone and moral compass rather than be absorbed into being one of the many fearful, toadying, underlings who cater to the whims of the vulgar, despotic big-bucks company boss Sydney Greenstreet whose account means $10 million to his new employer, represented by his cringing, excitable new boss played by Adolphe Menjou.
For me therefore the movie fell between two stools, Gable's who-will-he-choose love triangle dilemma and the satire on American business practices with neither plot-strand convincing individually or combining successfully. For the first, it seems highly unlikely that a young beauty like Gardner would fall so hard for the undeniably still charismatic but equally undoubtedly ageing leading man or that he would also be simultaneously charming a pretty, classy, English war widow mother of two like Kerr or that she would fall for his charms after his somewhat sordid attempt to seduce her at a cheap hotel.
More could certainly have been made of the examination of the literally soap opera-type machinations of the advertising world where the characters seem much more believable, like Greenstreet's loathsome bigwig, Menjou's fawning doormat and even Keenan Wynn's relentlessly unfunny gagman, but even the effect of Gable's dressing down of Greenstreet's bullying monster is softened unnecessarily by the need for him to get the right gal and for the movie to end with him and Kerr in a romantic clinch.
All of this is something of a shame as Gable shows he is still capable of commanding the screen as his greatness is on the wane, Kerr and Gardner charm in different ways and Greenstreet in particular stands out for his vivid portrayal of a loathsome character with no redeeming features. However the muddled story line and somewhat staid, over-sentimental direction here only serve to dull the impact of what could have been an altogether sharper and indeed caustic dissection of the whole Madison Avenue crowd.
For me therefore the movie fell between two stools, Gable's who-will-he-choose love triangle dilemma and the satire on American business practices with neither plot-strand convincing individually or combining successfully. For the first, it seems highly unlikely that a young beauty like Gardner would fall so hard for the undeniably still charismatic but equally undoubtedly ageing leading man or that he would also be simultaneously charming a pretty, classy, English war widow mother of two like Kerr or that she would fall for his charms after his somewhat sordid attempt to seduce her at a cheap hotel.
More could certainly have been made of the examination of the literally soap opera-type machinations of the advertising world where the characters seem much more believable, like Greenstreet's loathsome bigwig, Menjou's fawning doormat and even Keenan Wynn's relentlessly unfunny gagman, but even the effect of Gable's dressing down of Greenstreet's bullying monster is softened unnecessarily by the need for him to get the right gal and for the movie to end with him and Kerr in a romantic clinch.
All of this is something of a shame as Gable shows he is still capable of commanding the screen as his greatness is on the wane, Kerr and Gardner charm in different ways and Greenstreet in particular stands out for his vivid portrayal of a loathsome character with no redeeming features. However the muddled story line and somewhat staid, over-sentimental direction here only serve to dull the impact of what could have been an altogether sharper and indeed caustic dissection of the whole Madison Avenue crowd.