Executive Suite

When the president of a large furniture manufacturer dies suddenly, no successor has been named, and the company's executives begin competing to take his place. The board must choose a new leader, and the contest pits an ambitious, profit-driven manager against an idealistic engineer who would rather focus on products than office politics. A controlling shareholder and the late president's associates hold influence over the outcome, while the candidates resort to intrigue and pressure to win support.

Executive Suite was released in 1954 and runs 104 minutes. Robert Wise directed it, working from a screenplay by Ernest Lehman; John Houseman produced. It is the third of the thirteen films Wise directed in chronological order, following The Day the Earth Stood Still and preceding Helen of Troy. William Holden leads as the engineer McDonald Walling, with June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon and Shelley Winters among the principal cast, part of a credited ensemble of eighty performers. The production, from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Loew's Incorporated, had a budget of about one million dollars.

Audience response has been favorable: on IMDb the film holds 7.4 out of 10 from roughly 5,200 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 out of 10 from a much smaller sample. A film critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10, drawn from twelve reviews, places critical opinion somewhat above the audience scores.