Best movie of this year hands down!

the audience applauded

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Gable's a commanding presence and appears in about every scene. His ad-man character Victor Norman is none too likable, but that's the way it should be, given the shark tank he's swimming in. I found the first part rather tedious as Victor bounces around socially and professionally to no particular purpose. The second part, however, picks up noticeably as the plot thickens. Vic's a self-assured man looking to make big money in advertising, but has his own uncompromising ideas on what sells. Thus, he's either a man of principle capable of better values, or a mercenary man who will only reluctantly sell out. Which of the two wins out emerges as the plot's crux. Of course, being Gable he has to have an active love life, and that means deciding between the gentile Kay (Kerr) or the vibrant Jean (Gardner). Frankly, Kerr's given a basically one- dimensional role that doesn't hold much interest. I can see why she was afraid Gardner would steal the picture (IMDB). The movie's satirical part emerges with Greenstreet's portrayal of the caricatured soap kingpin Evan Evans. He presides over Beautee Soap's advertising interests like a gelatinous cretin, spitting on the table, tossing hats out the window, and dumping water on hapless underlings. It's here that the film makes a jolting statement about the industry, given Evans' unchallenged authority. At the same time, a reckoning between him and Gable's Norman shapes up as inevitable. All in all, the movie stands now as something of a curiosity, with lessons about commercialism that I expect still stand, whether radio, TV, or internet streaming.

After the World War II, the arrogant and self-confident Victor Norman (Clark Gable) returns to New York and seeks a job in the advertising agency of Mr. Kimberly (Adolphe Menjou). He is assigned to convince the widow Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr) to modeling to promote the the flagship of the agency Beautee Soap. The he has a meeting with the rude and capricious millionaire Evan Llewellyn Evans (Sydney Greenstreet, who is the tyrannical owner of Beautee Soap. Victor dates Kay but they have a misunderstanding and Victor returns to the arms of his former lover, the singer and aspirant Hollywood actress Jean Ogilvie (Ava Gardner). But Victor misses Kay and does not like the treatment of the untouchable Mr. Evans to him."The Hucksters" is a film with a great cast, with Clark Gable, the gorgeous and elegant Deborah Kerr and the seductive Ava Gardner that unfortunately has a shallow and pointless story. The female characters are lovely, but Evan Llewellyn Evans is a gross, despicable and stupid character and Victor Norman is arrogant and boastful. In the end, the weak story of "The Hucksters" wastes a magnificent cast. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Mercador de Ilusões" ("The Merchant of Illusions")

This is a pretty poor movie overall, particularly in its overblown romantic scenes with Lennie Hayton's syrupy MGM strings pounding out the emotions. Its best moments, and there are many, must come from Fredrick Wakeman's 1946 novel—at its time one of the first exposés of the advertising and talent agency business. Most of the screenplay seems watered down by today's standards, most likely sanitized not to offend two of Hollywood's power brokers, Leo Stein and Lou Wasserman of MCA, said to be the prototypes. On the other hand, if you have ever wondered why Ava Gardner in her first major part broke Sinatra's heart when she left him, just take a look at her under Harold Rosson's soft-focus big studio glamor lighting. At the time the picture was made she was twenty-five year's old and absolutely ravishing! Deborah Kerr, playing a stereotypical upper-class Englishwoman, simply can't compete with the gorgeous Ava; Deborah has very little to do here other than to be vedy vedy British and the voice of Integrity. There are some wonderful on- the-nose scenes about the biz, however, with Edward Arnold and Adolphe Menjou, perfectly cast and doing what they did so superbly film after film, to say nothing about the great Sydney Greenstreet at his most gross physically and morally. But it is Keenan Wynn who walks away with the picture, playing a thoroughly obnoxious and untalented stand-up comic with jokes so bad that even Milton Berle wouldn't have stolen them. It takes great talent to make someone so bad seem good.

Forget that this film was made in 1947, or about radio advertising. This film is about all tyrannical bosses, liars, and propaganda which have existed years before and after this film was made. This The state of current American politics is sold to the public, much the same way as the Soap was sold in this movie.An aging Gable proves his abilities as an actor in this film. Some comments call his a liar, but by definition, a liar is someone doesn't tell the truth under oath. When you work in a business such as advertising or politics when the best "liar" wins,lying is an asset, not a negative moral judgment. Anything, short of murder is considered OK.I rate this film a 9 because it artfully shows the "huckster" meeting a "real lady" played by Debra Kerr. She is not your average 'war widow" Her husband was a General, she is from English Aristocracy, and has two young children. When the film begins-the two complete opposites clash but fall in love. Perhaps what saves Gable, and makes him attractive to Kerr is his four years of service during WWII.Gable has seen men die, and seen fear for one's life which changes his perspective. One of the best lines is when he tells Ad firm boss(aptly played by Adolph Menjou that he saw more courage in the men at Normandy than he saw in the reaction to Sydney Greenstreet who plays the largest client in the firm. Desite Gable and Kerr's differences, and the injection of a very attractive and young Ava Gardner, Gable and Kerr fall in love.The only reason I would not give this movie a "10" is due to the ending. Eventually, all men must make their living, and compromise with your boss or your customers is sometimes necessary. I found the ending a bit too sanctimoneous. In real life, Gable would have taken the job working for a despicable character played expertly by Sidney Greenstreet. Most of us have to face people like Greenstreet's character. The trick is keeping the job to pay the bills and keeping your self respect without running away from the job. There have always been Sidney Greenstreets.