"Patterns" is a film that was originally a television play. Like other exceptional teleplays such as "Marty" and "Days of Wine and Roses", Hollywood decided to remake the story--but with production values far better than the live TV broadcast. Yes, the teleplay for "Patterns" was originally done LIVE--and I sure would love to know if I can find a copy of the original show. If it's available, let me know--I'd love to compare it to this United Artist film.

The movie begins with Van Heflin arriving at a new job working on the board of a corporation. Although he's happy to be there, he soon becomes dismayed to see how tough things are for a long-time board member (Ed Begley),as it seems that the intention is to slowly ease Begley out and have Heflin take over these duties. The problem is that Begley is a nice guy and he has a lot of good ideas...but somehow, for some reason, the CEO (Everett Sloane) hates Begley--and treats him like dirt. Tune in to see where all this goes--it's well worth the wait.

The film, like another of Rod Serling's famous teleplays ("Requiem for a Heavyweight"),is great for two reasons. First, the writing is exceptional. Second, like "Requiem", the story features some very dark characters--and gives them great gritty dialog. While the story is VERY simple, because the characters are so interesting, you can't help but admire the film. It's NOT an especially exciting or glitzy production, but is quality throughout thanks mostly to the writing but also to some wonderful second-tier actors who made the most of the material. They were second-tier because they were not the most famous actors--more journeymen who knew their craft.

UPDATE: I found a copy of the teleplay on YouTube and so can you.

Patterns finds Van Heflin, newly arrived from Mansfield, Ohio where Everett Sloane's corporation has just bought out the factory where he was the plant manager. Sloane was impressed enough with Heflin to take him along to New York and make him a member of his company's board of directors. Vice President Ed Begley was impressed with Heflin's abilities as well and befriends him.

What Heflin doesn't realize is that he's the object of a corporate power play. Sloane is hard driving, ruthless executive usually in the kind of role Ed Begley plays. For once Ed Begley is a nice guy in a film. He's a decent soul unlike Sloane, but he's past his best years. Sloane doesn't want to fire him, just demean him enough so he'll quit. Begley's loyalties to the company stem from when Sloane's father ran the business and he can't see life beyond it.

All this comes out at the first board meeting that Heflin attends and later at a party that he and wife Beatrice Straight throw for the board members. Heflin is a confused man, caught between liking and admiring Begley and sadly knowing his future lies with Sloane.

A number of films were made in these years about corporate connivings at the top. Patterns can hold its own with any of them and that list would include Executive Suite, The Power And The Prize, Cash McCall, and B.F.'s Daughter in which Van Heflin co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck.

Patterns was originally a television drama and one of the best early scripts done by Rod Serling. Begley and Sloane repeated their roles, movie name Heflin was substituted for Richard Kiley. The filming still betrays its photographed teleplay origins, but the players more than compensate for the deficiencies there.

For a good look at how we saw corporate America in the Eisenhower years you can't do much better than Patterns or any of the other films I mentioned.

This is better than it has a right to be.

Engineer and expert in industrial relations Van Heflin is recruited from a small plant in Ohio to be on the staff of a large business organization in New York. The Vice President is elderly Ed Begley, friendly, affable, treated as dogsbody by the heartless President (or CEO or whatever he is) Everett Sloan. Heflin and Begley work together and become friends. Sloan is a hard head. He insults Begley openly during board meetings whenever Begley expresses a humanistic sentiment. And when Begley and Heflin submit a joint report, Sloan gives all the credit to Heflin, trying to humiliate Begley to such an extent that he resigns. But Begley has other ideas. He dies instead.

First of all, it's impossible not to notice that Van Heflin gives a fine performance. Sitting behind his office desk, he hunches his shoulders, stretches his arms, and groans, "Man, it's been a long day," and we believe him completely. Compared to Heflin, all the others in the cast seem to be acting, although they're professionals like Sloan, Andrew Duggan, Elizabeth Wilson, and the rest.

Next, the story and dialog are resolutely middle brow, as all of Rod Serling's work was. The arguments and conversations leave little doubt about the sentiments behind them, and sometimes they're repetitious. Twice, Sloan uses the term "tongue clucking" to describe Begley.

And yet, the formula for a movie like this requires that the nice guy from Ohio quit the jungle of New York and return to the peace of the boondocks -- but that doesn't happen here. The ending is better than that. In "Other People's Money," Danny De Vito represents the cold logic of the owner, while Gregory Peck cares about the company's tradition. It ends in De Vito winning and Peck losing. (Except for a silly happy ending.) In "Patterns," nobody really wins or loses.

Serling deals here with one of his obsessions. Old age and nostalgia for one's youth. The arena here is the world of business but the contest is man against social change, just as it was to be in many of the best "Twilight Zone" episodes. Begley wonders what happened to the corporation. In "the old days" the president, Sloan's father, could walk through a plant and be called by his first name. Now it's all shuffling papers and the people have gotten lost.

Sloan, in his pitiless arrogance, is like Nietzsche's Ubermensch. Neitzsche, in thrall to post-Darwinism's embrace of evolutionary science, believed that the social Darwinists didn't go far enough. They rejected the superstition of religion without dumping the accompanying Christian moral values of generosity and compassion. Sloan happily dumps them. He welcomes Heflin's hatred and promotes him to Vice President.

Fortunately, you don't have to know a thing about business and "enterprises" and such to follow what's going on. If that were necessary, I'd have been lost. When I was a Teaching Assistant at a semi-exclusive school I was dating a girl who casually mentioned that her father was a Vice President at (insert name of a huge corporation you've heard of). I gasped, and in my reply managed to convey some surprise. She minimized the importance of her father's job because "they have twenty-one Vice Presidents." My own father was an alcoholic wastrel who was fired from his last job as night attendant at Hub Cap Joe's Gas Station in Keyport, New Jersey.

Trust me when I tell you that the machinations you'll witness in this film are easily grasped and depend far more on character than on the details of running a business.

I don't want to run out of room here, but I have to squeeze in some mention of the main set -- a long hallway that buzzes with activity during the day and turns into a darkened bats' cave at night. The director adds some nice dramatic touches. After Begley's demise, Sloan enters the empty office and sits behind the desk, touching Begley's things. He seems to be crowing internally at his final victory, but then he suddenly bows his head -- signaling what? The director is sometimes overemphatic too. People shout when they'd be more convincing if their voices were strangled with anger.

Anyway, I liked it quite a lot, especially considering its unpromising subject matter. It's at least as good as "Executive Suite."