Plot
This meticulous and unusually long cinemadaptation of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as an ex-army officer, pursuing a living as a TV writer in the postwar years. Hired by a major broadcasting network, Peck is assigned to write speeches for the network's president (Fredric March). Peck comes to realize that the president's success has come at the expense of personal happiness, and this leads Peck to ruminate on his own life. Extended flashbacks reveal that Peck had experienced a torrid wartime romance with Italian girl Marisa Pavan, a union that produced a child. Peck is torn between his responsibility to his illegitimate son and his current obligations towards his wife (Jennifer Jones), his children, and his employer. Among the many life-altering decisions made by Peck before the fade-out is his determination to seek out a job that will allow him to spend more time with his family, even if it means a severe cut in salary. The superb hand-picked supporting cast of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit includes Ann Harding as March's wife, Keenan Wynn as the man who informs Peck that he'd fathered an Italian child, Henry Daniell as a detached executive, and an unbilled DeForrest Kelley as an army medic (who gets to say "He's dead, captain"!) ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
If the passage of time has blunted the edge of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, it still holds more than enough rewards to bear watching. Chief among these is Gregory Peck's sterling performance in the title role. Peck was a tremendous talent but in some ways limited; there was a stolidness, sometimes a stodginess to his persona that got in the way of making him totally believable when he tried to stretch himself too much. That's not a problem here, as the role fits him as if it had been tailor-made for him. Peck's particular brilliance lies in the quiet strength that is so much a part of him and the way in which he uses subtle changes in that quietness to signal mammoth emotions. He's given ample opportunity to do so here, and the results are enthralling. Although co-star Jennifer Jones is disappointing (a fact that mars the effectiveness of the film), he gets extremely solid support from Marisa Pavan, Fredric March, Lee J. Cobb, Keenan Wynn, and just about everyone else in the film. (There's particularly fine work from Ann Harding, who seems especially in tune with the Peck manner of acting.) There's also some brilliant dialogue and character sketching from Nunnally Johnson, who also directs with a sure hand. Unfortunately, there are also a few sections where the screenplay stacks the deck a little too obviously, and when the tone gets a little preachy; it's also undeniable that a good 20 minutes could and should have been chopped away. That said, Flannel is still a powerful film with an exceptional performance from its star. ~ Craig Butler, RoviCast
- Gregory Peck - Tom Rath
- Jennifer Jones - Betsy Rath
- Fredric March - Ralph Hopkins
- Marisa Pavan - Maria
- Lee J. Cobb - Judge Bernstein
Credit
Jack Martin Smith - Art Director, Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Charles LeMaire - Costume Designer, Nunnally Johnson - Director, Dorothy Spencer - Editor, Bernard Herrmann - Composer (Music Score), Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Charles G. Clarke - Cinematographer, Darryl F. Zanuck - Producer, Stuart A. Reiss - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Ray Kellogg - Special Effects, Alfred Bruzlin - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer, Nunnally Johnson - Screenwriter, Sloan Wilson - Book Author| The Man in the Glass Booth (1975 Film), The Man in the Brown Suit (1989 Film) | |
| The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 Film), The Man in the Iron Mask (1977 Film) |
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