Is this the best teleplay ever written by Rod Serling?  It’s almost too good, even for him. Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley square off at the center of a business power squeeze, in a business world adopting ruthless new ground rules. Is it all about staying competitive, or is it corporate criminality?  It’s also a must-see for its terrific early performances from Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight. Director Fielder Cook opens up his celebrated live TV production for the big screen.

Patterns
Blu-ray
Film Masters
1956 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min. / Street Date August 19, 2025 / Available from Amazon / 21.99
Starring: Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson, Joanna Roos, Valerie Cossart, Eleni Kiamos, Ronnie Welsh, Shirley Standlee, Andrew Duggan, Jack Livesy, John Seymour, James Kelly, John Shelly, Victor Harrison, Sally Gracie, Sally Chamberlin, Edward Binns, Lauren Bacall (?), Ethel Britton, Michael Dreyfuss, Elaine Kaye, Adrienne Moore.
Cinematography: Boris Kaufman
Production Designer: Duane McKinney
Art Director: Richard Sylbert
Assistant Director: Charles Maguire
Costume Design: Mary Merrill
Film Editors: Dave Kummis, Carl Lerner
Written by Rod Serling from this teleplay
Produced by Jed Harris, Michael Myerberg
Directed by Fielder Cook

A number of live TV dramas of the  Golden Age of Television were received so well, that they were adapted for the big screen. One of the best is also one of the least-known, even though its writer is the legendary Rod Serling. The drama is riveting, the cast is great, and it (cough) actually has something important to say.

Along with everything else in America, big business changed in the 1950s and in so doing inspired a mini-genre of ‘organization man’ pictures:  The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and  Executive Suite, and related ‘getting along with the new business rules’ soaps like  The Best of Everything and  Woman’s World. Discounting the somewhat silly Woman’s World, all of these pictures are about people making adjustments to a new kind of corporate life, wherein large companies in big cities concentrate economic decision-making power in the hands of a few chosen people. Executives in New York claw their way up the corporate ladder, only to find that the top jobs are so fraught with tension that one has energy for nothing else — wives, children, a home life.

The typical ’50s business go-getter is an ex-serviceman eager to take on a challenge. He needs a supportive wife back home to help him make good decisions — or to keep him from cracking up. Jennifer Jones in Gray Flannel Suit is a child-woman who enjoys the perks but cannot handle bad news. June Allyson of Executive Suite spends two hours telling her husband to quit, only to reveal that she’s more eager than he is for the key to the executive washroom.

In this pre-Feminist decade the business world is a Man’s world, because women ‘must sacrifice too much’ to do combat in the board rooms. Joan Crawford’s oppressive exec in The Best of Everything eventually quits her job, so she can ‘become soft and feminine again.’ The executive secretaries in Patterns know that a boardroom is a jousting arena, where the unworthy are judged and found wanting.

All the movies outline the abuse and humiliation some excecutives suffer, but most soften their radical, ‘this isn’t human’ outrage in time for the fade-out. Remember the test pilot’s wife in  The Right Stuff who envies other women whose husbands will at least be alive at the finish of their day’s work?  We sometimes understand why a man might feel safer in a jet plane, than having his fate decided by a peer group of competitive, ambitious executives.

Perhaps the decade’s most insightful ‘organization man’ epic is Patterns, originally a Kraft Theater live TV presentation performed twice early in 1955. It put writer Rod Serling on the map, and it’s still considered one of his very best teleplays. A deal was made with United Artists for a feature film version, as had worked so well with Paddy Chayefsky’s uplifting romantic drama  Marty. The upgrade of Patterns could boast a killer cast. Along with some minor parts, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Elizabeth Wilson, and Joanna Roos repeated their roles for the feature version. TV’s Richard Kiley, Elizabeth Montgomery and June Dayton were replaced by Van Heflin, Sally Gracie and Beatrice Straight. To give an idea of the caliber of talent live TV had to pick from, Fielder Cook collaborated with Serling on the same year’s live TV drama Mr. Finchley Versus the Bomb, a Twilight Zone- like story about a codger refusing to leave an atom blast area. It starred John Galludet, Henry Hull, Cloris Leachman, Paul Mazursky and William Shatner!

Serling’s thesis confronts the alleged inhumanity of the ‘new business world’ head-on. The Ramsey Company is run by the draconian Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane), who demands aggressive competitiveness from all of his key executives. Ramsey will not tolerate slackness; to keep his job an excec must pull more than his weight. It’s a Darwinian philosophy. Success comes by encouraging good men to shove the less worthy aside.

The office and its secretaries nervously await the arrival of Fred Staples (Van Heflin), a hot talent from the hinterlands eager for the chance to succeed at company headquarters. Everybody assumes that Staples is there to replace old Bill Briggs (Ed Begley), the last of the original team that started the company with Ramsey’s father. Especially nervous is Briggs’ devoted secretary Marge Fleming (Elizabeth Wilson). Being told that she’s only helping break-in the new man doesn’t calm Marge — at the first board meeting, Ramsey treats Briggs terribly, in front of the other executives.

Stung by these humiliations, Bill exits the meeting like a dead man walking, and starts drinking again. At a party at the Staples’ new house, Fred is given the big meet and greet. His wise wife Nancy (Beatrice Straight) knows better than to sweet-talk the harsh Mr. Ramsey, who chooses not to socialize but to lock himself in Fred’s study to read Fred and Bill’s new report/proposal for company reforms. Ramsey insists that the excellent report is all Fred’s work, and admits that Bill Briggs is on the way out. Fred Staples respects and defends Briggs, but Ramsay insists that he is deadwood to be pensioned off. Seeing Bill deteriorate on the job, Fred begs him to retire. In a subsequent boardroom clash Ramsey berates Briggs without mercy, daring him to quit. Something has to give.

Patterns is sometimes listed with an addendum to its title (” … of Power!”) that isn’t on the film itself. The power is palpable in the way Everett Sloane runs his one-man fiefdom. From the elevator operators to the interplay of the executive secretaries, all business activities follow rigid ceremony, like the command rituals on a Naval vessel. The announced reasons for decisions hide real reasons underneath, to discourage rumors that might hurt the company’s image or give the competition ideas. Ramsey reserves the right to persecute any exec he dislikes. He expects Staples to tear into every aspect of the business, making things more efficient, improving the product and intimidating the competition. He considers Briggs a holdover from an earlier era, with a ‘hail fellow, well met’ attitude now considered out of date.

Patterns is more daring than the other main contenders Gray Flannel Suit and Executive Suite, entertainments that in general uphold the status quo. In Gray Flannel Suit, mid-level advertising executive Gregory Peck is unwilling to be elevated in his company because a happy family is more important to him than a new car and bigger salary. Good luck Greg, for real companies don’t allow executives to find a comfortable level and stay there. If you don’t keep moving up you will be replaced, more likely than not by your own assistant, who can be pressured to cover your workload at a fraction of your salary.

The dynamics of the rat race isn’t a simple matter of cream rising. In the furniture company of Executive Suite, go-getter William Holden finds himself competing with men that avoid decisions like the plague. Holden’s tough guy exec proves his mettle in dramatic fashion, by tearing apart one of his company’s chairs, proving that cheap and shoddy products will backfire and cause the company to lose market share. Holden is basically Alexander the Great, hacking the Gordian Knot in twain. Move over, you hollow nabobs, and let a real leader of men pass.

Rod Serling’s Patterns sets up a dilemma without finding a pat solution. Is Serling criticizing or celebrating the way Walter Ramsey does business?  The company is in good shape; Ramsey aim is to maintain the cutting edge that will keep it on top. He knows egos are involved. The other executives don’t come to the aid of Bill Briggs because they know it will do no good. ‘Tis the Law of the Jungle and Briggs is blocking the path. These men might not be test pilots, they might not risk death every day, but those found wanting are shown the door. They maybe become miserable middle managers somewhere. They’ll live in apartments and deal with resentful wives that consider them losers.

That was 1956. Today there are fewer middle managers, no army of secretaries, no elevator starters. Today’s executives will find themselves unemployable unless they cultivate an entire network of people that owe them favors. Some may actually return a favor … if the outcome will prove advantageous for them. Like politicians, they must do their job and constantly audition for the next job.

Patterns makes Staples’ wife an active participant in the race for the top job. She’s not as obvious as some other executive wives: June Allyson whines at William Holden all through Executive Suite, even as we suspect that she’s just whipping him into a go-getter frenzy. There’s a country club in your future, June!  In Patterns, Beatrice Straight’s Nancy Staples stays supportive and cool, putting no pressure on Fred and encouraging him to follow his best judgment. But when her man balks at the gate, claiming that he wants to quit, Mrs. Staples becomes a tiger. Why didn’t Fred complain when she showed Ramsey his report?  If he’s so outraged at Ramsey’s methods, why he didn’t object sooner or louder?  ‘Stop pretending that you’re going to shortchange us on account of abstract ethics.’ Nancy says, without saying it out loud. She and Fred want the big reward. Make the right moves, and they’ll get into the capital gains bracket.

It’s a big-time game and Nancy knows how to play it. She drives Fred to work and all but hands him his sword and shield as he enters company headquarters. Fred goes upstairs to tell Mr. Ramsay off, quit and maybe punch out the little creep. But the confrontation turns into a dare — Ramsey concedes nothing, and is willing to take his philosophy to its logical conclusion:

(Spoiler:)  Ramsey doubles Fred Staples’ salary and stock options on the spot, to get him to stay. Staples will be happy to oblige if the boss can take a killer shark in the boardroom, because he’ll promise loyalty only to what’s good for the company. If Ramsey gets in the way, he better watch out.

It’s like Luke Skywalker confronting Darth Vader. Instead of lopping off each other’s heads they realize that they’re a lot alike, and should team up to fulfill their destinies. Things can be awfully plush in this profit center, you know. Staples gets to take on the #2 slot and retain his pride and veneer of moral superiority.  Bill Briggs?  Who’s Bill Briggs?  It’s not difficult to read this ‘moral confrontation’ as a psychic pressure valve, one that allows Fred and Ramsey to go forward with the Ethical Slate wiped clean. They just needed closure.

Patterns is a concentrated drama. Fielder Cook’s direction opens the film up a bit but keeps the high-powered confrontations — shouting matches, actually — at full force. The delivery of every scene is spot-on.

This is one of Van Heflin’s very best roles, after far too many pictures that were unworthy of his talent. Everett Sloane is as good here as he is in anything for Orson Welles. But all the major parts are memorable. Ed Begley would become typed as overbearing, often corrupt fat cats. Here he’s a good man trying to keep his dignity. He suffers knowing that every time he objects to Ramsey’s slings and arrows, he comes off as the old coot who ought to go jump in the river.

The women’s roles are exemplary; none is an emotional ‘softie.’  Joanna Roos’ Miss Lanier directs activities on the office floor with impressive precision. Two remarkable actresses stand out in relief. Elizabeth Wilson spends much of her times suppressing her feelings, watching Mr. Briggs squirm and suffer.  ↖  She would contribute great work to too many good movies to mention. The same goes for Beatrice Straight, who had an equally stellar career on the legit stage and is terrific in a lot more than just  Poltergeist. Patterns was her first feature appearance, and she in no way looks her age of 42 years.  ↗  Straight’s best-known film scene is her showstopper in Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s  Network. Straight’s soliloquy reaming out her husband William Holden and demanding his respect was usually met with audience applause. She applies the same acting voltage to Patterns. The two characters are like career bookends.

Of course we now know that Fred and Nancy Staples eventually took over The Ramsey Company, gave it their name and specialized in office supplies . . .

A young Andrew Duggan is one of the executives. The elevator starter in the lobby of the Ramsey Building is none other than Edward Binns, who was just getting started. He barely makes the credited cast list. A woman among the crowd of extras in the lobby does indeed look a lot like Lauren Bacall, although I don’t know why Mrs. Bogart would do such a thing. The same woman shows up in a wider shot later on, performing the same motions. The improved presentation is what allows us to see this.

Few seem to remember this movie, include it in compilation montages or remember its powerful dramatics. Why other shows were given a shot at the title and the superior contender Patterns got a ticket to Palookaville, I can only guess. Does its star power not compete with glossier organization man dramas?  It was originally distributed by United Artists, which routinely allowed pictures not given Academy Award nominations to be shunted aside. We doubt that much effort was made to sell it, and the original posters look crummy. UA’s The Night of the Hunter and Kiss Me Deadly were treated with respect only after hipster demand raised their stature, thirty years after they were made. And who ever heard of Fielder Cook, who would become one of the most prolific directors of TV movies?

Some deserving UA/MGM pictures to finally receive belated remasters and good home video releases are Frank and Eleanor Perry’s  Ladybug Ladybug (with early work by William Daniels and Nancy Marchand), and Jack Garfein’s weird original  Something Wild, with its score by Aaron Copland. We’re still waiting for revisionist justice to shine its light on Alexander Singer’s  A Cold Wind in August with Lola Albright, and to restore to full length Mark Robson’s Technicolor  Return to Paradise with Gary Cooper. Some disc boutique licensee needs to step up to the plate!

Film Masters’ Blu-ray of Patterns is a second go at a remastering job that appeared 9 years ago on The Film Detective label. It would appear to be a Public Domain title, one of many showing up now in very good Blu-ray remasters not taken from original printing elements. The original printing elements for Patterns are held by MGM; the subject becomes touchy when we realize that properly sourced remasters of titles like Corman’s  The Terror and Harrington’s  Night Tide have not been released on disc because PD labels would just swoop in, duplicate them, and market them on their own.

Patterns looks very good. It looks to have been taken from an excellent print. Overall the image is clean, sharp and stable. with very good contrast. It’s in full widescreen (1:66). The scan shows off a good range of contrast in all but a few shots, and the rock-steady image flatters Boris Kaufman’s excellent cinematography.

We know this particular show well. Because it has no music score, just the sound of bells from the church a block away from Wall Street, viewers may not notice that film’s opening is missing. It’s nothing major. If the film were intact, we would see another shot of the New York skyline at dawn, a panning shot that precedes what we see now.

We think this encoding came from the same master, but that it has been improved. It looks a little brighter, with better contrast. The chapter stops are different. Also, the ending has been improved. On The Film Detective disc, right in the middle of the final Van Heflin – Everett Sloane confrontation, the picture quality dropped. It happens right after Sloane gives Van Heflin the title of Vice-President. In this new version, it looks as if more digital tools have been applied. The image is brought almost all the way back to a good match; all we notice is a bit of lingering instability.

Patterns was a good title for TV, but it’s not a good fit for a feature competing for attention on a page of movie ads. Posters added a second title line, “of Power,” which helped a little.

As we said before, we found the film so powerful that these drawbacks come off as negligible. The show is better than we’ve ever seen it, retaining almost all of its impact. We recommend the disc.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Patterns
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Good ++
Sound: Very Good
Supplements: none
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: September 6, 2025
(7390patt)

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