Executive Suite

Executive Suite is a 1954 MGM drama film depicting the transfer of power in a corporation in trouble. The film stars William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, and Walter Pidgeon. It was directed by Robert Wise and produced by John Houseman from a screenplay by Ernest Lehman based on the... novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The cinematography was by George J. Folsey and the costume design by Helen Rose. It is one of the few Hollywood films with no music whatsoever. Avery Bullard, president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major company in the small town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania, dies suddenly while in New York City. Bullard drops dead in the street after a stroke moments after telegraphing his secretary with orders to call a meeting of the executive board. At that meeting it was likely he would name an executive vice president who would be his presumptive successor. But Bullard is now dead and without an agreed successor. So the board of directors, four of whose members are vice presidents who could rise to the top job, must vote for his replacement.
more