Patterns (film)

Ruthless Walter Ramsey runs Ramsey & Co., a Manhattan-based industrial empire he inherited from his father. He brings Fred Staples, a youthful industrial engineer whose performance at a company Ramsey has recently acquired has impressed him, in for a top executive job at the headquarters. Though Staples is initially clueless, Ramsey is grooming him to replace the aging Bill Briggs as the second in command at the company.

Briggs has been with the firm for forty years, having worked for and admired the company's founder, Ramsey's father. His concern for the employees clashes repeatedly with Ramsey's ruthless methods. Ramsey will not fire Briggs outright but does everything in his power to sabotage and humiliate him into resigning. The old man stubbornly refuses to give in. Staples is torn by the messy situation, his ambition conflicting with his sympathy for Briggs.

The stress gets to Briggs, who collapses after a confrontation with Ramsey and later dies. This causes a heated showdown between Ramsey and Staples, in which Staples announces he is quitting. Staples initially went up to kill Ramsey but the fact that his wife refused to go home and 'pack' everything, insisting on waiting for him during his confrontation with Ramsey shows another side of the story--the American woman, just as ambitious as the Corporate Man. Ramsey rebukes him, asserting only men with his talent have what it takes to make a corporation like Ramsey & Company succeed. He offers Briggs' job to Staples at double his present salary, double his stock options and an unlimited expense account. Staples resists and Ramsey increases the fever of his pitch, adding that Staples will never be able to reach his full potential anywhere else. Staples counters that he would have to have more than vice presidency of the company, effectively another 'whipping boy' for Ramsey. He states that he wants equal footing, implying a partnership - adding that he will do all he can to replace him, and as a 'bonus', the right to break Ramsey's jaw if he feels so inclined. Ramsey enthusiastically agrees to all of the conditions with a rider that he reserves the right to reciprocate the final condition.

Film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film an A and highly praised it in his 2002 Ozus review:

"Patterns is based on the teleplay of Rod Serling which was aired live on TV in January of 1955 on Kraft Television Theater, and was so-well received that it was repeated four weeks later. That was something not done during that period. This brilliant script by the creator of the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, is considered by many as the finest piece of writing he has ever done and brought him instant acclaim. It is ably directed by Fielder Cook ... The ensemble cast is superb, with special kudos to Van Heflin, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight and Everett Sloane. This is Van Heflin's finest role since Shane (1953)."^[3]

Added Schwartz:

"It's a forceful melodrama, that takes the viewer into the pits of a big corporation's board room politics, backstabbing, and the tough way of doing business. Things have changed since the 1950s which make some things outdated, but the film still has its finger on the savage nature of the business world. Even when a company is not as corrupt as an Enron, people are still perceived as secondary to making a profit no matter what."^[3]

In the April 27, 2008, edition of TV Week, the television critic Tom Shales compared the movie unfavorably to the live TV production:

Some people thought live TV was the beginning of a truly new storytelling medium—one uniquely suited to intimate, unadorned, psychological dramas—but it turned out to be a beginning with a tiny middle and a rushed end... Patterns was so well-received that Kraft mounted a live repeat of the show a month later, and the intimate TV show was turned into a less intimate (and somehow less satisfying) movie in 1956. Except for the use of terms like “mimeographed” and “teletype,” little about the drama seems dated, unless one is of the opinion that corporate politics and boardroom bloodletting no longer exist... With minimally judicious scene-setting (shots of clocks, a building directory, a switchboard) and a rapid introduction of characters, Serling pulls a viewer almost immediately into his story, a tale of corporate morality—or the lack of it—and such everyday battles as the ones waged between conscience and ambition.^[4]

• List of American films of 1956

• Patterns at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Patterns at IMDb
• Patterns at Rotten Tomatoes  
• Patterns at AllMovie
• Patterns at the TCM Movie Database
• Patterns is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
• Patterns plot summary at Classic Film Guide