Patterns
It's likely you are unfamiliar with 1956's PATTERNS, a sadly obscure drama written by Rod Serling and directed by Fielder Cook. I learned about it on Letterbox'd, where a real education for obscure cinema thrives. I've seen numerous depictions of the toxicity of corporate culture but this picture stings and bites the way few dare. This is a coldly observant little movie that, as David Byrne once sang, is the same as it ever was. They say that film is primarily a director's medium, but with all due respect to Mr. Fielder it is the writing and acting in PATTERNS that make it sing. Bill Briggs (Ed Begley) has spent most of his life working for Ramsey & Co., an industrial firm in one of those imposing skyscrapers in New York City. He's the VP to the bold, heartless, and acid tongued CEO Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane). Briggs is of that tortured minority that actually breeds concern for employees and his fellow man. His mentor was hi...
