Patterns [Patterns of Power] **** (1956, Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson) – Classic Movie Review 13,489

The searing 1956 American boardroom drama film Patterns [Patterns of Power] is adapted by Rod Serling from his 1955 teleplay, and stars Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight and Elizabeth Wilson.

Director Fielder Cook’s 1956 American boardroom drama film Patterns [Patterns of Power] stars Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight and Elizabeth Wilson.

Patterns  is a searing office melodrama with Van Heflin as a thrusting Ohio businessman, Fred Staples, brought into a New York office as a new executive at Ramsey & Company, to drive out a dependable long-serving executive (Ed Begley), Bill Briggs, the vice president, who is considered ready for the scrap heap by the nasty top man (Everett Sloane), Walter J Ramsey, the company’s president.

Fielder Cook’s film is a slick and telling adaptation of a TV play by Rod Serling, cult scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone, which blends careful characterisation with a story about the perils of placing ambition above humanitarianism.

Serling comes up with an excellent screenplay, and Fielder Cook makes very good use of experienced character actors such as Everett Sloane, Ed Begley and Beatrice Straight Straight, who turn in marvellous performances.

Patterns of Power is the GB release title.

Ed Begley, Everett Sloane and Richard Kiley in the teleplay Patterns.

Rod Serling’s teleplay was first broadcast January 12, 1955, on the Kraft Television Theatre with many of the same actors (including Sloane, Begley, and Wilson). But the TV star Richard Kiley was dumped for Heflin. It was also directed by Fielder Cook.

The cast

The cast are Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson, Joanna Roos as Margaret Lanier, Valerie Cossart as Martha Stevens,  Eleni Kiamos as Sylvia Trammel, Ronnie Welsh Jr as Paul Briggs, Shirley Standlee as Miss Hill, Andrew Duggan as Harvey Jameson, Jack Livesey as D J.Vandeventer, John Seymour as Edward Gordon, James Kelly as James G Latham, John Shelly as Edgar Grannigan, Victor Harrison as Carl L Portier, Sally Gracie as Ann, Sally Chamberlin as Mrs. Jameson, and Edward Binns as the elevator starter, Michael Dreyfuss, Adrienne Moore, and Elaine Kaye.

Patterns [Patterns of Power] is directed by Fielder Cook, runs 88 minutes, is made by Harris-Myerberg, is released by United Artists, is written by Rod Serling, is shot in black and white by Boris Kaufman, is produced by Jed Harris and Michael Myerberg, and is designed by Richard Sylbert.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,489

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