Word: thrasher
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...turns out, the movie's pivotal figure is Woody Thrasher (David Wayne), a rising young executive who is torn between his innate sense of honor (of course no man of honor would want to work in Madison Avenue) and financial pressure (it is almost axiomatic that men of honor have mortgages to pay). Thrasher's story, with some minor changes, has been told repeatedly in the past few years...
...television program Americans, U.S.A., whose sponsor has threatened to throw in the kinescope. One morning, over coffee and dexidrine, he reads a newspaper story about Dr. Samuel Abelman, tracks him down, and after some effort convinces him to appear on the program. From then on, whenever it tells Thrasher's story, the movie follows a well-worn course...
...director Daniel Mann works with experienced actors, such as Muni and Luther Adler (Abelman's closest friend, Dr. Max Vogel) his touch is sure and often imaginative; but the rest of the cast seems unable to carry out his suggestions. The worst of the group is Betsy Palmer (Woody Thrasher's wife) who is about as inspired as a deep sea diver in the Charles River...
Mann's judgement about technical effects is often questionable. For example, in a scene outside Dr. Abelman's house in the Brooklyn slums, three teen-age Negroes throw beer cans at Woody Thrasher's white sedan as Thrasher drives away. This moment could have been quite eloquent, but some loud, over-dramatic background music destroyed the entire effect...
...Cover. In Pasadena, Calif., Dan Thrasher, 19, arrested for holding up a gas station, explained to cops: "I was just trying to work my way through college...