The Hucksters (1947) on Netflix
NR19471h 55mComedyDramaRomance
Victor Norman comes home from the war wanting to work in radio advertising on his own terms. He pitches Beautee Soap a campaign around Kay Dorrance, a noble-born war widow.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.7/102,155 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Plot summary
Fresh from the war, Victor Norman hunts for work as a radio advertising executive. To seem uninterested in a job, he throws money out of his hotel window, keeps fifty dollars, and spends thirty-five on a hand-painted necktie before an interview at the Kimberly Advertising Agency. The meeting is interrupted by a call from Evan Llewellyn Evans, whose Beautee Soap is the agency's biggest account. Victor proposes signing Kay Dorrance, a British widow of noble birth, for a Beautee Soap campaign aimed at Manhattan socialites. Claiming to come from the Charity League, he gets a meeting and wins her over. At the photo shoot, an art director proposes a provocative negligee, and Victor asks for something dignified: Kay in a formal dress with her children.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Hucksters (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The talent agent David Lash was based on Jules Stein, founder of the talent agency MCA, and Lash's protégé Freddie Callahan was modeled on Stein's protégé Lew Wasserman, prompting fears of reprisals from MCA.
- Ava Gardner was nervous about appearing with Gable, an actor she had idolized since childhood, so Hornblow had Gable call her; Gable declined to pressure her, saying he hoped she would change her mind and it would be fun to work together.
- Screenwriter Luther Davis and adapters Edward Chodorov and George Wells did an "extensive laundering job" on the novel, cutting its graphic sexual scenes and turning Mrs. Dorrance from a married woman into a war widow to satisfy Louis B. Mayer's tastes and the Hays Office.
- In the novel behind The Hucksters, Vic tells Lash people will call his honesty into question because he is a Jew; Davis removed all references to Lash's ethnicity and made him a kid who had been in trouble but had gone straight.
- MGM rushed The Hucksters into production so Louis B. Mayer could release it the following August, hoping to revive Gable's name after the flop of Adventure and launch Deborah Kerr's Hollywood career.
