The bigger the job, the more desperately you try to hang onto it.
Have decided to dip back into Criterion's Golden Age of Television box set this week. First up: Rod Serling's Patterns, which was first broadcast in 1955 and, like Marty before it, was almost immediately optioned for a big screen adaptation. (Now you know what I have on the docket for tomorrow night.) Directed by Fielder Cook, who also helmed the remake, Patterns is set in the world of big business where the quickest way up the corporate ladder is at the expense of somebody on their way down (or out). In this story, the one on the way up is novice executive Richard Kiley, who's brought in to replace ailing veteran Ed Begley, whose 24 years with the company doesn't mean a whole lot to unsentimental boss Everett Sloane. Of course, the fact that Begley has an ulcer, a bad ticker and an incipient drinking problem probably doesn't help his standing, either.
Coming in at a brisk 53 minutes, Patterns doesn't have time for a whole lot of nuance (I expect Serling was able to fill it out some in the process of expanding it to feature length), but it does give Kiley, Begley and Sloane room enough to sketch in their characters. Sloane in particular is about as gruff and irascible as they come, which is probably why, like Begley, he got to reprise his role in the film. I'm not sure why Kiley wasn't asked to do the same, but I'll see soon enough how well Van Heflin was able to fill his shoes.