The Solid Gold Cadillac is a 1956 film directed by Richard Quine and written by Abe Burrows, Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman. It was adapted from the hit Broadway play of the same name by Teichmann and Kaufman, in which they pillory big business and corrupt businessmen. There have also been productions on the London stage. The film stars Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas.
Laura Partridge (Judy Holliday), a minority stockholder with just ten shares of stock in a large corporation, drives its arrogant, self-serving executives to distraction with her incessant questioning. To shut her up, they give her a puffed-up position in Shareholder Relations, but this cushy job does not derail the conscientious Miss Partridge.
She becomes acquainted with Edward L. McKeever (Paul Douglas), the company's founder and former head. He had sold his shares and quit in order to work for the federal government. She convinces him to return and try to take back leadership by informing him how the new management is ruining the company he had built up out of nothing. When the company directors recall that he no longer owns shares and is thus powerless, they ignore him.
However, Laura has forged a warm relationship with many of the smaller investors while working at the company; they responded and sent in their proxies, giving her the right to vote their shares. McKeever has Laura stall the annual meeting to elect a new board of directors, while he and Laura's friends hurriedly tally the number of shares they control. Then he marches into the meeting and uses his votes to replace the entire board. He later marries Laura. In gratitude for rescuing the company, the shareholders make a gift of a solid gold Cadillac to the happy couple.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Holliday highly, stating, "the invincible Miss Holliday has dared to project her youthful figure and personality into the character shaped by Miss Hall" (the elderly actress who played the role in the Broadway play) and is "knocking the role completely dead."[1] However, he felt that the villains of the piece were neither particularly convincing ("not precisely representatives of the workaday financial world"), original ("cut from a fairly familiar stencil of Kaufmanesque farce"), or formidable enough ("The problems set up by the play-wrights are little barriers of cardboard farce").[1] He concluded, "it will give you an entertaining ride, but don't expect it to take you or your intelligence very far."[1] The Film4 reviewer agreed that the story was not particularly convincing ("Yeah - like global capitalism gets overthrown that easily"), but "even so, it's undemanding and amusing."[2]
Jean Louis won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design Black and White. Ross Bellah, William Kiernan, and Louis Diage were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction Black and White.[3]
Holliday was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, while the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.