Patterns (1956)

Political Noir. - Patterns review by Steve

Coruscating polemic aimed at corporate America which doesn’t attempt to disguise its origins as a low budget TV play, but makes its threadbare claustrophobia into a virtue. For aficionados of political cinema, this may be the great forgotten film of the decade. Easy to imagine it inspired David Mamet.

Van Heflin plays the small town nice guy appointed to the board of a New York firm by its sociopathic chief executive (Everett Sloane) to lead human resources. And covertly edge out the New Deal philosophy of a traumatised company man (Ed Begley). Because big business operates like a shark, without conscience.

The big asset is Rod Serling’s brilliant, deadeye script which communicates the social Darwinism that operates the levers of US free enterprise. There’s an astonishing scene when it becomes obvious that the newcomer’s stay-at-home wife (Beatrice Straight) is easily as ruthless as the boss. And today would be in the boardroom herself.

It’s ultimately ambiguous whether the newcomer gets assimilated into the detached pragmatism of malign executive culture. This is pessimistic political noir and doesn’t generate much hope. It’s is a realistic and devastating analysis of US capitalism, even though filmed in the time of McCarthyism.