Paramount Pictures
It’s summertime and if you are any respectable Texan, you know that you should leave our great state and go on vacation between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. It’s just too H-O-T.
Gary Logan
Wes Shannon
Well, when on vacation, it is the perfect time to read a book, enjoy some movies, and binge watch a TV Series. This month, even financial planners like me are wanting to escape the heat and renew our energies for the rest of the year. So, in that spirit of fun, I am going to give our readers two old movie recommendations that I believe have great financial and business value.
I recently watched “Executive Suite,” from 1954, on Amazon Prime for a rental of $3.95. It features an all-star cast of four Oscar winners and four Oscar nominees: William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelly Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, and Dean Jagger. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three. Directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman and Cameron Hawley.
The story takes place in basically a 24-hour period from the unexpected death of the Tredway Corporation chief executive officer to the naming of a replacement CEO by the board of directors. The deceased CEO failed to designate a successor and thus the scramble among the top executives began. High drama is introduced when it becomes known that the daughter of the founder and holder of the most stock, played by Barbara Stanwyck, had been having an affair with the deceased CEO. The classic business battles between accounting, sales, R&D, and production are fought out in a Gothic boardroom at the top of an Art Deco office building.
Any serious student of history would enjoy this time capsule of the 1950s with the misogynistic office hierarchy and traditional family roles by the wives of the executives. Look for the classic illegal insider trading scheme at the beginning when an investment banker working for Tredway Corp sells short the company stock under another name upon discovery of the CEO’s death and before it is made known to everyone else.
While this is a 70-year-old movie the lessons and events are as relevant today as they ever were. Companies need succession plans, greedy people look for unfair advantages, and all companies struggle between the bean counters and the producers. The real lesson for business owners from this movie is that a company’s “why” must be known and followed.
“Trading Places,” from 1983, is usually easy to find on Netflix and Amazon. This is a comedy directed by John Landis, starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy, and Don Ameche. Also, with Jamie Lee Curtis providing the primary female role. A mad-capped comedy about two heads of a commodities brokerage firm, Mortimer and Randolph Duke, making a bet about the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. They play out their bet by destroying the life of one of their own young proteges, Louis Winthorpe III, and replacing him with a street smart hustler, Billy Ray Valentine. Later, Louis and Billy Ray team up to get revenge on the two old men who have used them as pawns.
This movie is 40 years old but still explains the commodity markets and how trading is done. It also provides an example of what is illegal in the commodities market. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are at their prime when this movie is made. The two of them led one of the most well loved casts of Saturday Night Live. Elmer Bernstein was nominated for an Oscar for the original soundtrack.
The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 was passed to make it illegal what the Dukes attempted to do in this movie. Expect to laugh till you cry and enjoy one of the last performances of Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy.
Both movies have a 7.5 rating on IMDB and have stood the test of time. So, while you are out of the summer heat enjoy these and you might even learn something new about business and the financial markets. You won’t need the services of a Certified Financial Professional to watch these, but you still would benefit from a CFP®’s help with your financial plans.
Wes Shannon CFP® is a Certified Financial Planning Professional for Brazos Wealth Advisors in Fort Worth.