The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit - wikipedia The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit This article is about the 1956 film. For the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, see The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ( novel ). The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit 1956 Movie Poster Directed by Nunnally Johnson Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck Written by Nunnally Johnson ( screenplay ) Sloan Wilson ( novel ) Starring Gregory Peck Jennifer Jones Fredric March Music by Bernard Herrmann Cinematography Charles G. Clarke Edited by Dorothy Spencer Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date April 12, 1956 ( 1956 - 04 - 12 ) Running time 153 min. Country United States Language English Budget $2,670,000 Box office $4,350,000 ( US rentals ) The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is a 1956 American drama film based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Sloan Wilson. The film focuses on Tom Rath, a young World War II veteran trying to balance his marriage and family life with the demands of a new job while dealing with the aftereffects of his war service. The film stars Gregory Peck as Rath and Jennifer Jones as his wife, with Fredric March, Lee J. Cobb, Keenan Wynn and Marisa Pavan in supporting roles. It was entered at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Reception 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Plot Ten years after the end of World War II, Tom Rath ( Gregory Peck ) is living in suburban Connecticut with his wife Betsy ( Jennifer Jones ) and three children ; he 's having difficulty supporting his family on his salary writing for a nonprofit organization. Tom is also dealing with flashbacks from his combat service as an Army Captain in both the European and Pacific theaters, involving men that he killed ( including, by accident, his best friend ), and a young Italian girl named Maria ( Marisa Pavan ), with whom he had a brief but heartfelt affair in Italy despite his being in a relationship with Betsy at the time. Before he left Maria for the final time to go back into battle, Tom was told that she was pregnant and was going to keep the baby. He would never see her or the child again. When an expected inheritance from Tom 's recently deceased grandmother turns out to have been depleted, leaving only her large and unsaleable mansion, Betsy pressures Tom to seek a higher - paying job. Acting on a tip from a fellow train commuter, Tom applies for an opening in public relations at television network UBC. Asked to write his autobiography as part of the interview process, he refuses. Hired nonetheless, he helps network president Ralph Hopkins ( Fredric March ) launch a national mental health campaign. Hopkins is powerful and highly respected, but unbeknownst to his employees, his workaholic habits have caused him to be estranged from his wife and his rebellious daughter, who soon elopes with an unsuitable man. Tom is initially supervised by Bill Ogden ( Henry Daniell ), a micromanager and office politician who rejects Tom 's drafts of an important Hopkins speech intended to launch the campaign, substituting his own draft consisting of what Ogden thinks Hopkins wants to hear. Tom plans to play along and accept Ogden 's draft but, coaxed by Betsy, presents his original ideas to Hopkins instead. Hopkins, who has just received the unwelcome news of his daughter 's elopement, is receptive to Tom 's criticism and thinks Tom resembles his own late son, who refused to accept an officer 's commission in World War II and was subsequently killed in action as an enlisted man. Hopkins now regrets having ignored his family and advises Tom not to make the same mistake. Betsy abruptly sells the family 's modest dwelling and moves them into Tom 's late grandmother 's mansion, `` Dragonwyck, '' only to find that Edward ( Joseph Sweeney ), the old woman 's longtime caretaker, is claiming that Tom 's grandmother had bequeathed him the estate. Judge Bernstein ( Lee J. Cobb ) intercedes and presents evidence that suggests that not only did Edward forge the bequest letter, but he also padded his bills, thus depleting the estate and accumulating a large fortune in the town 's bank that he could not otherwise explain. The Raths are able to keep the house. At his new job, Tom runs into elevator operator Caesar ( Keenan Wynn ), a sergeant with whom he 'd served in Italy. Caesar is married to Maria 's cousin and tells Tom that Maria and her son by Tom are desperate for money in their still war - ravaged country. Tom has kept his affair and child a secret from Betsy, but he now decides to tell her, remembering her admonition to be honest at all times. Betsy reacts angrily and speeds away recklessly in her car. They reconcile at the local police station. Tom and Betsy go to Judge Bernstein to set up a trust fund for Tom 's son in Italy. That night, Hopkins calls to ask Tom to accompany him on a trip to California in support of the new campaign. Tom declines, saying he just wants to `` work 9 to 5 and spend the rest of the time with my family, '' a decision Hopkins respectfully accepts. Cast Gregory Peck -- Tom Rath Jennifer Jones -- Betsy Rath Fredric March -- Ralph Hopkins Marisa Pavan -- Maria Montagne Lee J. Cobb -- Judge Bernstein Ann Harding -- Helen Hopkins Keenan Wynn -- Sgt. Caesar Gardella Gene Lockhart -- Bill Hawthorne Gigi Perreau -- Susan Hopkins Portland Mason -- Janey Rath Arthur O'Connell -- Gordon Walker Henry Daniell -- Bill Ogden Connie Gilchrist -- Mrs. Manter Joseph Sweeney -- Edward M. Schultz Sandy Descher -- Barbara Rath Reception Contemporary reviews of the film were somewhat mixed. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times declared it `` a mature, fascinating and often quite tender and touching film. '' Variety wrote that the film `` often seems episodic and it 's over-long, '' finding Johnson 's direction `` uneven '' and holding him `` responsible for the fact that the picture so determinedly misses the point of the book which made the flannel suit a symbol rather than just a garment. '' Harrison 's Reports called it `` one of the most absorbing pictures of the year, '' with `` exceptionally fine '' acting. John McCarten of The New Yorker thought the film was too long and suggested that the flashbacks should have been trimmed, concluding that `` if it were an old - fashioned serial, I 'm sure we might have been able to tolerate it. In one massive dose, though, it 's just too damned much, and I think you 'd be better off taking a tranquilizer pill than going through all this for the sake of escaping the world and its woes. '' The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote : `` As a sociological document, a particular view of the contemporary American middle - class scene, the film is uneasily fascinating. Otherwise, this is a characteristic best - seller adaptation, over-long, over-loaded with ' production values ', padded out with flashbacks to the war years, and efficiently impersonal in its approach. '' The film, like the novel on which it was based, became hugely popular. Historian Robert Schultz argues that the film and the novel are cultural representations of what Adlai Stevenson had described in 1955 as a `` crisis in the western world '', `` collectivism colliding with individualism, '' the collective demands of corporate organizations against traditional roles of spouse and parent. That increased corporate organization of society, Schultz notes, reduced white - collar workers ' ( represented by Tom Rath and the other gray - suited `` yes men '' ) control over what they did and how they did it as they adapted to the `` organized system '' described and critiqued by contemporary social critics such as Paul Goodman, C. Wright Mills, and William H. Whyte, Jr. See also List of American films of 1956 References Jump up ^ `` The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit - Details ''. AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 23, 2018. Jump up ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox : A Corporate and Financial History ( The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series ). Lanham, Maryland : Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8108 - 4244 - 1. p250 Jump up ^ ' The Top Box - Office Hits of 1956 ', Variety Weekly, January 2, 1957 Jump up ^ `` Festival de Cannes : The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ''. festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009 - 02 - 04. Jump up ^ Crowther, Bosley ( April 13, 1956 ). `` Screen : Mature, Tender and Touching : ''. The New York Times : 21. Jump up ^ `` The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ''. Variety : 6. April 4, 1956. Jump up ^ `` ' The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ' with Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and Fredric March ''. Harrison 's Reports : 50. March 31, 1956. Jump up ^ McCarten, John ( April 21, 1956 ). `` The Current Cinema ''. The New Yorker : 75 -- 76. Jump up ^ `` Man in the Grey Flannel Suit ''. The Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 ( 270 ) : 86. July 1956. Jump up ^ Schultz, Soured on the System : Disaffected Men in Twentieth - Century American Film ( McFarland, 2012 ), 37 - 43 ; Stevenson, `` A Purpose for Modern Woman, '' Woman 's Home Companion ( September 1955 ) : 29 - 31. Jump up ^ Schultz, Soured on the System, 48 - 50, 53 - 54, 64 - 69, 71 - 72 ; Goodman, Growing Up Absurd : Problems of Youth in the Organized System ( Random House, 1960 ) ; Mills, White Collar : The American Middle Classes ( Oxford, 1951 ) ; Whyte, The Organization Man ( Simon & Schuster, 1956 ). External links The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit on IMDb The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit at AllMovie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit at the TCM Movie Database Films directed by Nunnally Johnson Night People ( 1954 ) Black Widow ( 1954 ) How to Be Very, Very Popular ( 1955 ) The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ( 1956 ) Oh, Men ! Oh, Women ! ( 1957 ) The Three Faces of Eve ( 1957 ) The Man Who Understood Women ( 1959 ) The Angel Wore Red ( 1960 ) Darryl F. Zanuck Producer Old San Francisco ( 1927 ) The First Auto ( 1927 ) The Jazz Singer ( 1927 ) Tenderloin ( 1928 ) The Show of Shows ( 1929 ) Three Faces East ( 1930 ) The Doorway to Hell ( 1931 ) Little Caesar ( 1931 ) Illicit ( 1931 ) The Public Enemy ( 1931 ) The Man Who Played God ( 1932 ) The Rich Are Always with Us ( 1932 ) Doctor X ( 1932 ) Life Begins ( 1932 ) The Cabin in the Cotton ( 1932 ) Three on a Match ( 1932 ) 20,000 Years in Sing Sing ( 1932 ) Parachute Jumper ( 1933 ) 42nd Street ( 1933 ) The Working Man ' ( 1933 ) Ex-Lady ( 1933 ) The Bowery ( 1933 ) Blood Money ( 1933 ) Moulin Rouge ( 1934 ) Looking for Trouble ( 1934 ) Born to Be Bad ( 1934 ) Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back ( 1934 ) The Mighty Barnum ( 1934 ) Folies Bergère de Paris ( 1935 ) Les Misérables ( 1935 ) Cardinal Richelieu ( 1935 ) Call of the Wild ( 1935 ) Metropolitan ( 1935 ) Thanks a Million ( 1935 ) The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo ( 1935 ) Professional Soldier ( 1935 ) The Prisoner of Shark Island ( 1936 ) It Had to Happen ( 1936 ) A Message to Garcia ( 1936 ) Under Two Flags ( 1936 ) The Road to Glory ( 1936 ) Poor Little Rich Girl ( 1936 ) Sing, Baby, Sing ( 1936 ) Pigskin Parade ( 1936 ) Seventh Heaven ( 1937 ) Slave Ship ( 1937 ) Wee Willie Winkie ( 1937 ) Wake Up and Live ( 1937 ) Thin Ice ( 1937 ) Lancer Spy ( 1937 ) In Old Chicago ( 1938 ) Happy Landing ( 1938 ) International Settlement ( 1938 ) Kentucky Moonshine Always Goodbye ( 1938 ) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ( 1938 ) Just Around the Corner ( 1938 ) Little Miss Broadway ( 1938 ) My Lucky Star ( 1938 ) Submarine Patrol ( 1938 ) Jesse James ( 1939 ) Tail Spin ( 1939 ) Wife, Husband and Friend ( 1939 ) The Story of Alexander Graham Bell ( 1939 ) Rose of Washington Square ( 1939 ) Stanley and Livingstone ( 1939 ) The Rains Came ( 1939 ) Hollywood Cavalcade ( 1939 ) Swanee River ( 1939 ) The Little Princess ( 1939 ) The Grapes of Wrath ( 1940 ) Little Old New York ( 1940 ) The Man I Married ( 1940 ) The Return of Frank James ( 1940 ) Brigham Young ( 1940 ) Down Argentine Way ( 1940 ) The Mark of Zorro ( 1940 ) Hudson 's Bay ( 1941 ) Tobacco Road ( 1941 ) The Great American Broadcast ( 1941 ) Blood and Sand ( 1941 ) A Yank in the R.A.F. ( 1941 ) How Green Was My Valley ( 1942 ) Son of Fury : The Story of Benjamin Blake ( 1942 ) Sex Hygiene ( Short ) ( 1942 ) To the Shores of Tripoli ( 1942 ) This Above All ( 1942 ) Thunder Birds ( 1942 ) The Purple Heart ( 1944 ) Wilson ( 1944 ) Winged Victory ( 1944 ) The Razor 's Edge ( 1946 ) Gentleman 's Agreement ( 1947 ) Fury at Furnace Creek ( 1948 ) The Snake Pit ( 1948 ) Pinky ( 1949 ) Twelve O'Clock High ( 1949 ) No Way Out ( 1950 ) All About Eve ( 1950 ) David and Bathsheba ( 1951 ) People Will Talk ( 1951 ) Viva Zapata ! ( 1952 ) The Snows of Kilimanjaro ( 1952 ) The Egyptian ( 1954 ) The View from Pompey 's Head ( 1955 ) The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ( 1956 ) Island in the Sun ( 1957 ) The Sun Also Rises ( 1957 ) The Roots of Heaven ( 1958 ) Crack in the Mirror ( 1960 ) Sanctuary ( 1961 ) The Big Gamble ( 1961 ) The Longest Day ( 1962 ) The Chapman Report ( 1962 ) The Visit ( 1964 ) Writer as Mark Canfield The Desired Woman ( 1927 ) ( story ) Maybe It 's Love ( 1930 ) Baby Face ( 1933 ) ( story ) Crack in the Mirror ( 1960 ) as Melville Crossman Tenderloin ( story ) ( 1928 ) State Street Sadie ( story ) ( 1928 ) Thanks a Million ( story ) ( 1935 ) A Yank in the R.A.F. ( story ) ( 1941 ) Thunder Birds ( original story ) ( 1942 ) China Girl ( story ) ( 1942 ) The Purple Heart ( story ) ( 1944 ) as Gregory Rogers Find Your Man ( Rin Tin Tin story ) ( 1924 ) The Lighthouse by the Sea ( Rin Tin Tin story ) ( 1924 ) Three Weeks in Paris ( story, screenplay as Darryl Zanuck ) ( 1925 ) The Midnight Taxi ( story ) ( 1928 ) as self A Broadway Butterfly ( 1925 ) Red Hot Tires ( 1925 ) Hogan 's Alley ( 1925 ) The Caveman ( scenario ) ( 1926 ) The Little Irish Girl ( adaptation ) ( 1926 ) The Social Highwayman ( 1926 ) Footloose Widows ( 1926 ) Across the Pacific ( adaptation ) ( 1926 ) The Better ' Ole ( screenplay ) ( 1926 ) Tracked by the Police ( Rin Tin Tin story ) ( 1927 ) Old San Francisco ( 1927 ) The First Auto ( story ) ( 1927 ) Good Time Charley ( story ) ( 1927 ) Noah 's Ark ( story ) ( 1928 ) My Man ( story ) ( 1928 ) Hardboiled Rose ( story ) ( 1929 ) Madonna of Avenue A ( story ) ( 1929 ) Say It with Songs ( story ) ( 1929 ) The Life of the Party ( 1930 ) Little Caesar ( story -- uncredited ) ( 1931 ) The Dark Horse ( story ) ( 1932 ) Lady Killer ( story -- uncredited ) ( 1933 ) Folies Bergère de Paris ( contributing writer -- uncredited ) ( 1935 ) G Men ( story ) ( 1935 ) This Is My Affair ( story -- uncredited ) ( 1937 ) Alexander 's Ragtime Band ( contributing writer -- uncredited ) ( 1938 ) The Great Profile ( story -- uncredited ) ( 1940 ) Ten Gentlemen from West Point ( 1942 ) People Virginia Fox ( wife ) Richard D. Zanuck ( son ) Dean Zanuck ( grandson ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Suit&oldid=851877552 '' Categories : 1956 films English - language films 1950s drama films 20th Century Fox films American films American business films American drama films Films scored by Bernard Herrmann Films about advertising Films about businesspeople Films about veterans Films about suburbia Films set in 1955 Films based on American novels Films directed by Nunnally Johnson Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck Films set in Connecticut Screenplays by Nunnally Johnson Westport, Connecticut Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español Français 한국어 Italiano עברית Nederlands Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska 3 more Edit links This page was last edited on 25 July 2018, at 04 : 44 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. 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Question: who wrote the man in the gray flannel suit
Answer: Sloan Wilson