The bigger the job the more desperately you try to hang on to it. Ruthless Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane) runs Ramsey & Co., a Manhattan-based industrial empire he inherited from his father. He brings Fred Staples (Van Heflin) a youthful industrial engineer whose performance at an Ohio company Ramsey has recently acquired has impressed him, in for a top executive job at the headquarters. Though Staples is initially clueless, Ramsey is grooming him to replace the ageing widower Bill Briggs (Ed Begley) as the second in command at the company, indicated by moving Briggs’ loyal secretary Marge Fleming (Elizabeth Wilson) over to his office. Staples’ wife Nancy (Beatrice Straight) works persuasively in the background to convince her husband he needs to man up. Briggs has been with the firm for decades, having worked for and admired the company’s founder, Ramsey’s father. He lives with his teenaged son Paul (Ronnie Welsh) who collects tickets for the games he can’t attend with his father due his overworking. Briggs has watched the company not grow but acquire and work in league with shysters who cook the books. His concern for the employees clashes repeatedly with Ramsey’s ruthless methods. Ramsey won’t fire Briggs outright but does everything in his power to sabotage and humiliate him into resigning but despite his heart condition and ulcer Briggs simply refuses to give in. Staples is torn by the messy situation, his ambition conflicting with his sympathy for Briggs. The stress gets to Briggs, who collapses after a confrontation with Ramsey … Learn to accept success. It’s tougher to accept than failure. Rod Serling’s Kraft Television Theater teleplay gets a big screen transfer and it’s one of the toughest portraits of corporate bullying and politicking imaginable with its horrifying boss belittling Begley who tells home truths to Heflin, caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea – and his wife. There are three standout standoffs and they are riven with hard truths and brutal lessons in the world of men in gray flannel suits where viciousness on the level of murder is part of the cut and thrust of daily business. Astonishing career best performances make this a flavoursome boardroom drama, made in the same period as Executive Suite but in a totally different league. Intense. Directed by Fielder Cook. I feel about three times older than when I first came here
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