Study Questions: Week Two

Joining the Team.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)

The Caine Mutiny (1954).

The Dream Finds a Corporate Sponsor and Goes to War

The pursuit of the American Dream throughout the 1950s was intertwined with the larger political and economic issues shaped by the Cold War which pitted the industrial West against the Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations which it dominated. The traditional American family, with its sharply delineated gender roles was not only seen as providing its members with a sense of self-fulfillment and economic well being, but it also fostered the values and patriotic sentiments essential to victory in the Cold War. Conversely, the family, almost always represented by the father, was obliged to engage in the struggle to preserve the "American way of life" both at home and abroad. This engagement generally meant joining an institution which was hierarchical and often authoritarian, an institution which seemed in opposition to the ideals of democracy and individual freedom. It might mean taking a position with a large corporation which would pay a salary sufficient to allow a family to enjoy the material abundance which had become an integral part of the American Dream. And it might mean serving in the military to guard against a totalitarian enemy who threatened America's democratic ideals. Both alternatives posed an obvious dilemma: In the name of traditional American freedoms, Americans were asked to support institutions which seemed to deny the very freedoms which they promised to preserve and to make available to all deserving citizens.

This dilemma was solved by envisioning a society in which a private, family-centered, prosperous community became a haven which fostered democratic individualism, while public life was increasingly dominated by corporations and governmental institutions whose efficiency required that their functionaries become team players and that the nation arrive at a political consensus which transcends class conflict, ethnic and racial divisions, and cultural differences. Balancing the competing claims of the public and private became a familiar theme in Hollywood films of the period, a theme exemplified in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) and The Caine Mutiny (1954). Their success in providing a dramatic resolution to this dilemma helps explain their popularity with both critics and audiences.

Please comment on which method seems more useful. The next set of questions will be grouped by topic for comparison.

1. How do the opening shots of New York and the scene aboard the commuter train in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (MGFS) and Willie Keith's commissioning in The Caine Mutiny (CM) help to establish both the films' central themes and the economic and social class of their central characters?

2. What do the United Broadcasting Corporation (MGFS) and the U.S. Navy (CM) have in common as institutions? How do both films suggest that their failings are the responsibility of individuals rather than the institutions themselves?

3. Both MIGFS and CM have opening sequences which establish the gender roles appropriate to the American Dream. Consider Tom Rath's arrival home in the former (the clothes, the house, the children, the household appliances) and Willie's graduation from OCS in the latter (his mother, his friends, his girl friend). Would it surprise you to know that one of the popular songs of the period was entitled "Sometimes, I Want to Be a Boy" ?

4. In what specific ways does Betsy serve the spokesman for the American Dream and Tom's guide for achieving it in MGFS? Are there aspects of her character which seem to undermine this rather idealized role? Consider, for example, her heavy-handed advice in the opening sequences of the film.

5. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit seems to have three very loosely related plots: Tom's desire to find a job that will provide his family with upward mobility while maintaining his integrity; the flashbacks to World War II which focus on his love affair with Maria and their child; and Tom's attempt to settle his grandmother's estate. In what ways are these plots related to one another?

6. In relation to the previous question: why does Tom's thinking about a new job trigger his memories of the War a decade before?

7. How are these flashbacks related to the theme of achieving the American Dream. What did the War offer that seem absent from the post-war world of suburbs and commerce?

8. What is the significance of the inheritance sub-plot? How does it suggest that older forms of economic security are no longer appropriate to post-war America? What do you think of Betsy' plan for subdividing the property?

9. The Caine Mutiny also contains a pair of very loosely related narratives, the story of the Caine and its Captain (Humphrey Bogart) and the personal problems of Willie Keith, who finds himself caught between his love for May Wynn (May Wynn) and his duty to his mother (Katherine Warren). How does his experience aboard the Caine help him resolve his personal dilemma?

10. Willie's overprotective mother is likely to be understood in psychological terms. In order to become an adult, he must learn to make his own decisions. But, could it also be seen in terms of social class? That is Willie must abandon advantages of his upper-class birthright if he is to share a professional world with lower class characters like Maryk (Van Johnson) and achieve happiness with May who is also outside his class?

11. What is the significance of Tom's romance with Maria? How would you compare her to Betsy? How might the women represent contrasting forms of romantic love?

12. How do the relationships between the pairs of men and women (Tom and Betsy, Ralph Hopkins and his wife, Tom and Maria) offer a critique of work and marriage in the modern world? How might Tom and Betsy be seen as a golden mean between the extremes established by the other two? What is the significance of introducing Hopkins' daughter and her problems?

13. How does casting Frederick March as Hopkins draw upon March's previous roles (ie as Al Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives?

14. Why exactly are Hopkins' assistants (Gordon and Ogden) inferior to Rath. What mannerisms, habits of dress, and ethical behavior reveals them as limited and outdated? What is Rath's chief virtue which is absent in both of them ?

15. Why is money so important in shaping Rath's decision to take a job at United Broadcasting? Is money an end in itself?

16. Why does the film focus on Rath's assignment to write a speech on mental health rather than on his regular public relations work? What specific dilemma does Rath face when Betsy challenges him to be honest about the first draft of the speech? Does she demand too much of her husband?

17. Do you see an element of contempt for the common people unlucky enough to be outside the business and mamagerial elite? Consider the treatment of Edward, the grandmother's handyman and Betsy's opinion of those masses who tune into United Broadcasting.

18. What is meant by the term "9 to 5 man." Why does Tom Rath choose to be one? How does it serve to resolve the conflict between public and private life?

19. In what ways can Judge Bernstein be looked upon as the film's moral center? Consider his investigation of Edward and his opinion of Tom's decision to support Maria's son?

20. The film ends with Tom and Betsy reconciled and seemingly assured of a happy future. Does this ending seem plausible, or is it a bit forced to fit the ideology of the American Dream?

21. To what degree could CM be seen as a coming-of-age narrative in which Willie Keith, who represents the naive American, learns to assume the responsibility of adulthood? As the archetypal American, how does his experience reflect the cultural conflicts and changes in America during the 1950s?

22. What characteristics define Tom Keever (Fred McMurray) as the CM's villain? How does he repudiate the virtues required in Cold War America? What is the significance of his being a novelist? How does his portrayal reflect our culture's suspicion of artists and intellectuals?

23. Was Maryk justified in relieving Queeg of his command? Why? Why not?

24. To what degree is Barney Greenwald the moral center of the film? What is the significance of making him a Jew (minority) and a naval aviator (warrior) as well as a lawyer? Why does he agree to defend men he despises? What, in his estimation, was their real moral and ethical failure?

25. How does the closing sequence (Willie's new assignment, the reappearance of Captain Blakely, the image of the ship heading out into the Pacific) indicate that Willie's (and America's) dilemma has been resolved, or at least surmounted?