Main Cast: Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas, Fred Clark, John Williams, Neva Patterson, Hiram Sherman, Arthur O'Connell
Release Year: 1956
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The Solid Gold Cadillac was adapted from the George S. Kaufman-Howard Teichmann Broadway hit of the same. Both the play and film were predicated upon the notion of a humble ten-share stockholder triumphing over a corrupt big-business board of directors, but there was one significant difference. In the stage version, septuagenarian Josephine Hull starred as Laura Partridge, a sweet little old lady who asks several embarrassing questions at a stockholder's meeting. In the film version, Laura's age is lowered by at least four decades to accommodate star Judy Holliday. In both versions, a romance develops between Laura Partridge and Edward L. McKeever, the owner of the corporation she takes on. McKeever (played in the film by Paul Douglas, Holliday's co-star in the Broadway version of Born Yesterday) is an honest man, which is more than can be said for his self-serving board of directors (Fred Clark, John Williams, Ray Collins et. al.) With McKeever's covert help, Laura, who has been given a dummy executive position in the corporation in hopes that she'll shut up, forms a stockholder's association intent upon throwing the rascals out. Though the dialogue in Solid Gold Cadillac is consistently entertaining, the film's best line goes to Judy Holliday: Describing her brief career as an actress in a Shakespearean troupe, she recalls ruefully that "No one's allowed to sit down unless you're a king." George Burns, taking over from the stage version's Fred Allen, provides the wry scene-setting narration. Currently available TV prints of The Solid Gold Cadillac have restored the original Technicolor final shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Judy Holliday was the kind of actress to whom the phrase "every home should have one" very definitely applied. A gifted comedienne, she shines in The Solid Gold Cadillac, playing the kind of part at which she excelled -- a down-to-earth girl whose seemingly loose screws are much tighter than they appear. Beyond her comedic talents, Holliday's special gift was a beautiful, almost tangible warmth which enveloped (but never overwhelmed) the screen; it's easy to understand why Paul Douglas' character would fall in love with her. Equally as important, this warmth gives credibility to some of the screenplay's stretches; it doesn't make them believable, but it makes them seem less manipulative and mechanical. Richard Quine's direction is fine -- unobtrusive but also not particularly involving. At least he trusts his actors, and they don't let him down. Douglas is an excellent foil for Holliday; his gruff exterior masks a similar common touch, and there's a touching vulnerability beneath his big gorilla exterior. The cast of excellent character actors, such as Fred Clark and John Williams, turn in solid, dependable performances. Artificial and at times too much of a period piece, Cadillac is still worth watching for its lovable leads. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Ralph Dumke - Warren Gillie; Ray Collins - Alfred Metcalfs; Richard Deacon - Williams; Marilyn Hanold - Miss L'Arriere; Anne Loos - Blessington's Secretary; Audrey Swanson - Snell's Secretary; Larry Hudson - Chauffeur; Sandra White - Receptionist; Harry Antrim - Senator; Suzanne Alexander - Model; Madge Blake - Lady Commentator; George Burns - Narrator; Maurice Manson - 1st Lawyer; Bud Osborne - Spanish-American War Veteran; Voltaire Perkins - Judge; Paul Weber - Elevator Man; Jean Harvey - Farm Woman; Joe Hamilton - 2nd Lawyer; Lulu Mae Bohrman - Dowager; Jack Latham - Bill Parker
Credit
Ross Bellah - Art Director, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Irving Moore - First Assistant Director, Richard Quine - Director, Charles Nelson - Editor, Cyril Mockridge - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Clay Campbell - Makeup, Charles B. Lang - Cinematographer, Fred Kohlmar - Producer, Louis Diage - Set Designer, William Kiernan - Set Designer, George Cooper - Sound/Sound Designer, Abe Burrows - Screenwriter, George S. Kaufman - Play Author, Howard Teichmann - Play Author
Solid Gold Cadillac, The (1953), a comedy by Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman. [Belasco Theatre, 526 perf.] When a sweet little old lady named Laura Partridge (Josephine Hull) turns up at a huge corporation's stockholders' meeting and begins to ask embarrassing questions, the executives try to shut her up by giving her a job writing letters to other stockholders. Her letters are so warm and homey that by the next meeting she has enough proxies to take over the company. Her first order of business is to quietly fire the corrupt officials who had hoped to silence her. Most critics felt the Max Gordon offering was held together by Hull's beguiling performance. Kaufman's biographer, Malcolm Goldstein, observed of the play, “No one could deny that this was a slim plot and that it resounded with echoes of a score of plots concocted by Kaufman in the past.” The play marked the farewells to Broadway of Gordon, Hull, and Kaufman.
The Solid Gold Cadillac is a 1956 film directed by Richard Quine and written by Abe Burrows, Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman. It was adapted from the hit Broadway play of the same name by Teichmann and Kaufman, in which they pillory big business and corrupt businessmen. There have also been productions on the London stage. The film stars Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas.
Laura Partridge (Holliday), a minority stockholder with ten shares of stock, brings the arrogant executives of a large corporation to their knees. To stop her constant complaints, they give her the puffed-up position in Shareholder Relations, but this cushy job does not derail the conscientious Miss Partridge.
