Barnes & Noble

Sloan Wilson’s bestselling novel about a Madison Avenue advertising executive searching for meaning in his life certainly inspired writer-director Nunnally Johnson, whose 1956 film adaptation actually improves upon the source material. Gregory Peck, who was always best in roles that reflected his socially conscious views, nailed the characterization of a hard-charging professional forced to reevaluate his priorities and choose between business success and the happiness of his family. A strong subplot, involving the married adman’s illicit affair with an Italian beauty during his combat service in WWII, gives costar Jennifer Jones ample opportunity to shine as the wounded wife tempted to leave her husband when she learns that he has an illegitimate child living in Italy. Reserved, perhaps even repressed, Jones’s wife is the classic '50s suburban homemaker, and her palpable heartbreak makes this element of the film especially moving. Marisa Pavan is enormously appealing as the object of Peck’s marital transgression. In the Madison Ave. part of the story, Fredric March excels as the dynamic broadcasting tycoon whose approval is highly coveted by Peck’s character and his co-workers. Although the 1950s was a period in which Hollywood generally reinforced traditional values, filmmakers occasionally dared to make movies that suggested the American Dream wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit took the subject head-on, and in so doing became one of the decade’s most memorable pictures. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

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

Product Details

• UPC: 024543190677
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.55:1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 2:32:00
• Sales Rank: 14,027

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