The greyhound and the lady
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The greyhound and the lady |
| Original title | The Hucksters |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jack Conway |
| script | Luther Davis |
| production | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
| music | Lenny Hayton |
| camera | Harold Rosson |
| cut | Frank Sullivan |
| occupation | |
| |
The Greyhound and the Lady (Original title: The Hucksters ) is an American comedy film by MGM from 1947. It is based on the novel The Hucksters (1946) by Frederic Wakeman . It is the first film that Deborah Kerr has made in the United States.
action
After the Second World War , the clever advertising man Victor Norman ("Vic") tries to get a new job in the advertising agency of Mr. Kimberly. He is aiming for an annual salary of over $ 25,000, so he wants to go to the "executive floor". During his interview, he witnessed soap maker Evans, a key client of the agency, giving Kimberly instructions over the phone for a new advertising campaign: Evans has put together a list of 25 women in the company and Kimberly is supposed to get them to sign up for Evans' products advertise. At the top of the list is the widow general Kay Dorrance. In the advertising agency one sees difficulties in being able to win them over for the campaign. Vic offers to clear that up. Contrary to expectations, Mrs. Dorrance is quite open to advertising.
Kay and Vic first have to go to the photographer. According to Evans' wishes, she should wear a black, abundantly transparent negligee when taking pictures . But she is not ready for that. Vic helps her and gets the photographer through that she can wear a black evening dress. At the first meeting with Mr. Evans, Vic is attacked sharply and has to explain why he did not follow the guidelines for the promotional photos. His response to Evans: "Soap is a clean product and your advertising is not clean!" Evans is surprisingly happy with that. He is also impressed by the commercial that Vic is showing. Kimberly hires Vic, initially only at expenses. He wants to celebrate the success properly and invites his new employee to a club with Kay. There you meet the singer Jean, a former Vic woman, who sits down with him after her performance. In conversation with Jean, the meanwhile very drunk Kimberly takes all sorts of liberties. Vic therefore declares that she would be a good friend of his. To prove that friendship is nonsense, Kimberly shares how betrayal led to his business success.
On the way home in the taxi, Vic apologizes for Kimberly and the messed up evening. So when Kay got out to go inside, it could have been a goodbye forever. Vic then asks her to take him to the beach. Kay is apparently impressed by Vic and agrees. On the beach, the two of them get so close that they agree to spend the weekend in a hotel that Vic had last been to four years ago with a woman, the Blue Penguin Inn.
When Vic arrives at the Blue Penguin, he discovers that it is no longer the old hotel. The new owner is unfriendly, the rooms run down. He didn't get the widely separated rooms that Kay insisted on, but two adjoining rooms with connecting doors. He sets out to at least decorate the rooms with flowers. Kay is now arriving. When she arrives in the hall she feels out of place and when the hotel attendant tries to unlock the connecting door, she turns around on the spot and drives home again without having spoken to Vic.
At the moment Vic does not get around to clearing the matter with Kay. Because he will be summoned to Mr. Evans with Kimberly for the next morning. He wants to hire the second-rate comedian Buddy Hare for a show. Vic is supposed to establish discreet contacts with his agent Dave Lash. Evans knows that Lash is taking the train back from New York to Los Angeles the same day. Vic is supposed to meet Lash on the train. Before he leaves, he visits Kay again, but she mistrusts him too much at the moment, although she obviously still loves him.
Vic runs into Jean on the train. With her help, he can sign a good contract with Lash and get an option on Buddy at a ridiculous price. Vic meets Buddy in Los Angeles and works out a new number for him. He's also trying to refresh the old relationship with Jean. But he is not quite there and she too has long known who his heart belongs to. When he comes back, Kay is waiting for him at the front door, who flew in to speak to him. There is talk of marriage and the money he wants to earn.
Then Vic receives a hysterical phone call from the advertising agency. The contract with Buddy does not seem to work due to existing contracts. Vic seeks Lash again and blackmails him: He knows Dave from before and knows that he had been sent to a reformatory for a minor sin from his youth. Today he supports meeting places for young people from the lower classes and is highly regarded for this. Vic threatens that Dave's conduct in the contractual matter will be known and interpreted as a breach of loyalty; Its role model function for aspiring young people would be over.
The driving force behind Vic's blackmail is that he needs Evans' goodwill for the job with Kimberly, and the latter for the money to get married. But Vic immediately regrets his behavior; he suddenly realizes that he has acted as contemptuously as Kimberly did with his betrayal. Dave is deeply hurt and does not accept Vic's apology, but promises him the contract with Buddy.
Before meeting Evans to present a demo of the new show, Vic negotiates a higher salary than he initially asked: $ 35,000 plus expenses. Evans tries to intimidate Vic like his other business partners, but then expresses enthusiasm for his work. But now he's gone too far. Vic realizes that he has betrayed his old ideals by blackmailing old friends like Lash and thus becoming just as dependent on Evans as Kimberly. He gives Evans his opinion and throws the job and the lavish salary at his feet.
When Vic leaves the house, he has self-respect again, but no money. Kay picks him up and now he realizes what kind of woman he has: She sticks to him, cheers him up and says that you can get married with little money.
Dramaturgical and cinematic means
With a lot of sense of proportion, the new owner of the "Blue Penguin Inn" is himself portrayed like a penguin: a little man with a bird's nose and hair combed back. He is wearing a jacket that is far too long, which gives him the shape of a penguin, and moves slightly waddling and jerking.
On several occasions the cocky Mr. Evans is portrayed as a man of bad taste: he spits on the conference table, takes out his dentures in public, is enthusiastic about a comedian who apparently nobody else laughs at, loves a loud cracking style of singing. With this, the advertising business is given side swipes, so to speak.
At the end of the film, Vic and Kay accidentally run into the fish market (Fulton Market, Manhattan) and stop there among the traders and workers. From the world of appearances and the big money earned through deception they have moved into the world of the little people, but also into reality.
Reviews
“An amusing satire on advertising and advertising; Conventionally designed, but brilliantly interpreted, the film fascinates with its clever character drawing and the sympathetic self-image of independence, ”said the lexicon of international films .
Trivia
- At the beginning of the film, Madison Avenue in New York is shown (parallel to The Invisible Third ).
- The trains Vic, Dave and Jean take to travel from New York to the West Coast are famous luxury trains: first the 20th Century Limited to Chicago (parallel to The Invisible Third ), then the Super Chief to Los Angeles.
literature
- Frederic Wakeman : The Hucksters . Rinehart & company Inc., New York 1946.
Web links
- Greyhound and the lady in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Greyhound and the Lady. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .