Hucksters

As part of a promotion for his client's product, Gable convinces a lovely society war widow (sensitively played by Deborah Kerr) to endorse Greenstreet's beauty soap. Gable is immediately attracted to Kerr and vice versa.

But Gable and Kerr's characters are polar opposites. He is a driven sometimes ruthlessly ambitious businessman. She is a very proper, rather sheltered, but highly moral mother of two small children and a widow of a war hero.

In 1947, the year of this film's release, there was still a strong sense of morality in movies (something absent in most of today's films). The idea of having sex outside of marriage was not considered lightly. And in "The Hucksters", this issue is tastefully dealt with minus the vulgarity and gratuitous sexuality that permeate most of today's films. (Call me old fashioned, but I think we could do without so many explicit sex scenes in movies today.)

There are other contemporary topics in this film such as the power of big business to control the media and the dilemma of "getting ahead" in your profession by any means, ethical or not.

Even though this movie is over 50 years old, it holds up extremely well. It makes for an absorbing two hours of entertainment.


"And Mr. Evans, Your Ad is Not Clean."   December 21, 2001
Linda McDonnell (Brooklyn, U.S.A)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

The summation of ad man Clark Gable's reading of the riot act to soap magnate Sydney Greenstreet is just great in this a-one movie about the post-war radio advertising world. Gable has just hung up his uniform--literally--when the show begins, and is ready to resume his radio ad man career. Along the way, he has to tangle with Greenstreet, a really dopey Keenan Wynn, and decide which of two lovely ladies he wants to pursue. Quite a dilemma: the upper-crust war widow Deborah Kerr who seems like she'd be made of ice but is surprisingly warm to the touch, or sultry torch singer Ava Gardner, who might seem like a live wire but secretly yearns for an apron and a man in slippers. For those who are as confused as Gable as regards the woman issue, have no fear--just check out "Mogambo" where once again Gable has to choose between a lady (this time, Grace Kelly) and a, well, not so much of a lady (Gardner again). See both movies together, and you can play out both scenarios.

Really wonderful supporting work by Greenstreet as the overbearing soap dictator, used to making everyone alternately jump and grovel, and by Adolphe Menjou as the beleagured head of the ad agency, who has lost so many of his scruples that he embarrasses his wife in a terribly effective drunk scene in a nightclub double date with Gable/Kerr. Smaller role for veteran Edward Arnold, but just as solid as usual, playing a man who trusts Gable a little more than he ought.

If you're in the mood for great post-war King Gable and a bevy of top-rate supporting players, make a bee line for "The Hucksters"--and that's no soft soap.


CLARK AND KERR   November 3, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Clark Gable zoomed back to the pre-eminent place he long held in Hollywood with this smash performance of Vic Norman, the attractive "huckster"; a radio advertising go-getter. He takes with him the lovely English Deborah Kerr, who made her American film debut in this film from 1947. Nearly everyone read the book by Frederic Wakeman back in the forties; it was very popular. The Gable-Kerr team is ideal. Kerr made an impressive bow on the U.S. screen, and the critics took notice. Sydney Greenstreet is great as Evan Llewellyn Evans, who thinks America as a blank space between New York and Hollywood where people buy soap! Producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. garnered top technical talent for this film and Jack Conway's direction is first-rate. Ava Gardner is mesmerizingly beautiful as the nightclub singer, Jean Ogilvie. At the end of the excellent Luther Davis screenplay, Gable gives out with the kind of denunciation of his brow-beating boss that has been standard cinematurgy for years - the script ribs everything in radio of yore from soap operas to Forest Lawn commercials!


A Compelling Movie of Chesslike Stratagems   July 21, 2004
Daniel G. Snethen (Colome, SD USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

The Hucksters does an excellent job of portraying the cut throat business that advertising is. Clark Gable, playing the suave but ethical advertising man, is the protagonist and he is pitted against the larger than life business tycoon Sydney Greenstreet. Both are pitted against one another in this real life chess match, each making strategic moves of cunning, self-pride and power--Gable, in an attempt at making the advertising business a respectable one and Greenstreet by instilling fear into the bumbling idiots who surround him. Greenstreet operates as though his customers are mindless sheep easily persuaded by fancy packaging and jingles of no substance whereas Gable is convinced that the customer is intelligent and is looking for more than bells and whistles when purchasing a product.

Most interesting however is the internal struggle Gable, Kerr, and Gardner are each battling. Gable, basically a good man, is somewhat of a player and finds himself in love with Kerr. Kerr, a widow with children, is a righteous woman deeply attracted to Gable but cannot reconcile with his lifestyle. Gardner, a sultry singer of a sordid background, longs to settle down as a respectable housewife and mother and his her net set for Gable. All three do a magnificent job of portraying the internal struggles of their characters.

In the end Gable buckles but does not break before the formidable Greenstreet. Realizing that he cannot continue on working for this tyrant without compromising his standards, Gable passes on the company?s lucrative offer and walks, but not before he has publicly humiliated Greenstreet.

Of course, Gable does get the girl in the end. Which one? Watch the movie and find out!



Just as true today!   August 5, 2000
Gary D. Thomas (Studio City, CaliforniA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Picture this: Clark Gable and the whole passle of MGM stars and starlets! Spins a great story, and all this in 1947, could be today, except they dressed better. You will not forget the characterizations, especially Sydney Greenstreet, eat your heart out Eddie Murphy, just a marvy little film for all ages (God I love cliches!)