Madison Avenue

I am not going to disagree with anything the other reviewers have said, however, if I had read these reviews first I may not have watched this movie. And this movie is worth watching. Not because there is anything special here, but merely because it is interesting and moves along at a pleasant pace. Dana Andrews is typical Dana Andrews and he is always a solid actor. Most of his movies are well-made. Jeanne Crain, although about 37 is a doll as always and therefore always worth seeing. This may not be the type of movie to schedule your evening around or set the recorder for, but it is a satisfying movie for an afternoon when you need something to entertain you.

Based on a novel titled "The Build Up Boys," this lavishly produced widescreen movie was an unknown quantity for me until I discovered it on the Fox Movie Channel. The opening montage of colossal skyscrapers and city denizens rushing to work is very promising. Perhaps that is why what transpires next is so stupefyingly dull. Nothing really works here. David White, Larry on "Bewitched", utters a scary bit of dialogue: "Milk is actually a solid and should be sipped and chewed." Confused? So am I. There is more of that snappy banter between the sexes. It doesn't work here, either. Unfortunately, there is also a good deal of uncomfortable leering and lecherous behavior going on in a professional environment. The type of behavior which would get you fired or slapped with a lawsuit ASAP. Dana Andrews has always been a favorite actor of mine. But I longed to see his real-life brother, Steve Forest, show up with his "S.W.A.T." buddies just to stir things up a little. Jean Crain, another favorite of mine, plays a gossip columnist and "rock hound!" Go figure that one out. The opening musical theme has a simple piano melody over a lush background orchestration. I liked it.

I really wanted to like this sophisticated flick so I viewed it again. Same response. Maybe I will watch it a third time. I don't give up easily.

Curiously sedate and middle-of-the-road drama about cutthroat big business in the ad agency game. Dana Andrews plays hot-shot, ambitious public relations whiz in New York City who sees a fast track to the top: build up a second-string advertising firm in league with a dairy subsidiary to his largest account, Associated Dairy Corp., thereby giving himself an entrance to the big money when the time is right. Eleanor Parker plays the struggling agency's president-by-default who gets a make-over; Jeanne Crain plays a "jilted girl reporter" who may be trying to stab sometime-boyfriend Andrews in the back. This is one of many films which teamed Andrews with Crain, and they are very comfortable together, but the other performers fare much better with this minor material. Parker, in particular, brings some real flair to her role, Eddie Albert is very good as a befuddled corporation head, and Kathleen Freeman is terrific as the world's most efficient secretary. There's a bit of bounce in the direction and a terrific score by Harry Sukman, yet one gets the distinct feeling this was just a throwaway flick for 20th Century-Fox. The set designs (with a fetish for ships) and the art direction are dull, and the movie seems underpopulated and cumbersome. ** from ****

Well, I must admit that I watched this movie, only because it is the last one directed by the bland and lame director Bruce Humberstone, who was far more inspired by this CHARLIE CHAN movies, back in the thirties, and some other features in the meantime: FURY AT FURNACE CREEK. His only and unique masterpiece was I WAKE UP SCREAMING, of course, and I have a bit tenderness for SOUTH SEA SINNER and the several Tarzan adventures he also made in the late fifties. So, I am totally amazed that he was involved in such a sophisticated drama speaking of business, business and business, where glamor shines by its superb absence.... What the f....happened to him, regarding to his filmography? Imagine John Ford finishing his career with a musical...But Henry Hathaway ended his with a lousy Blaxploitation movie.

Dana Andrews plays a rather amoral advertising man who is more of a promoter than anything else. Oddly, much of what he does throughout the film is done as a bet with another advertising man. To prove a point (a very VAGUE one), Dana goes to work for a very small advertising agency run by Eleanor Parker. Through all of his efforts, the small agency becomes a contender by lifting the very eccentric (i.e., possibly crazy) owner of a small dairy to national prominence. All the time, he tries to romance boss Parker as well as Jeanne Crain who he strings along very cruelly.

The film appears to be an indictment against the advertising world, though the way the film goes in the last 10 or 15 minutes rather muddles this point. Despite spending HUGE amounts of energy to best the man he is betting against AND despite being on the cusp of fame and fortune, Andrews' character then behaves so uncharacteristically and irrationally that I felt the plot really needed a re-write. It just wasn't convincing and I went from liking the movie initially to just wanting it all to end.

All in all, some very good actors were given a rather limp script. The overall efforts are watchable, but only just.