Cameron Hawley's novel Executive Suite appeared around the same time as two other tales of big-business intrigue, the 1954 film
A Woman's World and the 1955
Rod Serling teleplay
Patterns. Elements of all three properties inevitably overlap. In Executive Suite, a furniture-store executive dies suddenly, resulting in a power play between five of his vice presidents. Julia O. Tredway (
Barbara Stanwyck), daughter of the company founder and mistress of the president, must choose between solid family man McDonald Walling (
William Holden), blackmail-prone Josiah Walter Dudley (
Paul Douglas), ruthless Loren Phineas Shaw (
Fredric March), duplicitous George Nyle Caswell (
Louis Calhern), and eternal corporate bridesmaid Frederick Y. Alderson (
Walter Pidgeon). Only Walling, the most honest of the bunch, refuses to campaign for the presidential chair. Despite the presence of the A-list leads and of supporting actors
Shelley Winters,
Dean Jagger, and
Nina Foch, Executive Suite is a true ensemble effort, with everyone carrying like weight onscreen. The property was later adapted into a TV series, which owed more to
Dallas than it did to the Hawley novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide