Hucksterism Inc. Movies
by horn-5 | created - 19 Feb 2014 | updated - 19 Feb 2014 | PublicDefinition of Hucksterism to be applied here: A person or group who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious and deadly methods to promote or sell a product, belief (sincere or otherwise) or an idea.
http://www.imdb.com/list/ffW86U8-8a4/
Choose the film you think best demonstrates the hucksterism profession.
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1. The Music Man (1962)
G | 151 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' band leader to raise money before he can skip town.
Director: Morton DaCosta | Stars: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold
Votes: 19,155 | Gross: $14.95M
Harold Hill: Ladies and gentlemen, either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community!
2. The Rainmaker (1956)
Approved | 121 min | Romance, Western
During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster.
Director: Joseph Anthony | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 4,280
Noah Curry: We don't believe in rainmakers.
Bill Starbuck: What DO you believe in mistah? Dyin' cattle?
3. Elmer Gantry (1960)
Approved | 146 min | Drama
A fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger
Votes: 12,815 | Gross: $11.34M
Lulu Bains: Oh, he gave me special instructions back of the pulpit Christmas Eve. He got to howlin' "Repent! Repent!" and I got to moanin' "Save me! Save me!" and the first thing I know he rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man's footsteps!
4. The Hucksters (1947)
Passed | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A World War II veteran wants to return to advertising on his own terms, but finds it difficult to be successful and maintain his integrity.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou
Votes: 1,995
Victor Albee Norman: I want a very sincere necktie.
Clerk: I beg your pardon?
Victor Albee Norman: I want something that makes me seem sincere. You know, honest; genuine; upright; trustworthy.
Clerk: Well... um, here's a handpainted one in four colors; at thirty-five dollars. Is that sincere enough?
Victor Albee Norman: I think, my friend, any more sincerity would be downright foolhardy.
5. A Lion Is in the Streets (1953)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A charismatic peddler from the bayous finds his true calling in politics. Is he a demagogue in the making?
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Barbara Hale, Anne Francis, Warner Anderson
Votes: 1,024
Hank Martin: Well, all folks is wonderful. You just have to know the right place to kick 'em in. Verity Wade: What? Hank Martin: Sure. It's like learnin' to play a musical instrument by ear. All you gotta know is what place to push to get what note. Then pretty soon, everybody's dancin'...to your tune.
6. All the King's Men (1949)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek
Votes: 16,574
Madison sends Burden to the backwaters of the state to learn about political upstart Willie Stark] Jack Burden: What's so special about him? Madison, the Editor: They say he's an honest man.
7. Network (1976)
R | 121 min | Drama
A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit, but finds that his message may be difficult to control.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall
Votes: 170,512
Diana Christensen: Well Max, here we are: Middle-aged man reaffirming his middle-aged manhood, and a terrified young woman with a father complex. What sort of script do you think we can make out of this?
8. A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, Music
A female radio reporter turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau
Votes: 17,084
Mel Miller: [commenting on one of Lonesome Rhodes' on-air tirades after the two have had a falling out] I'll say one thing for him, he's got the courage of his ignorance.
9. Meet John Doe (1941)
Passed | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A penniless drifter is recruited by an ambitious columnist to impersonate a non-existent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a social movement begins.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Votes: 14,897
D. B. Norton: You'll play your cards right and you'll never have to worry about money again.
10. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. His idealistic plans promptly collide with corruption at home and subterfuge from his hero in Washington, but he tries to forge ahead despite attacks on his character.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Votes: 121,345 | Gross: $9.60M
Senator Joseph Paine: Let me go! I'm not fit to be a senator! I'm not fit to live! Expel me, not him! Willet Dam is a fraud! It's a crime against the people who sent me here - and I committed it! Every word that boy said is the truth! Every word about Taylor and me and graft and the rotten political corruption of my state! Every word of it is true! I'm not fit for office! I'm not fit for any place of honor or trust! Expel me, not that boy!
11. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,763
Raymond Shaw: It's a terrible thing to hate your mother. But I didn't always hate her. When I was a child, I only kind of disliked her.
12. Black Legion (1937)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he's seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore
Votes: 3,917
Cliff Moore: Well, what's the matter? You afraid? Ed Jackson: So, you're afraid! Maybe they better change the name of your outfit from the Black Legion to the Yellow Legion.
13. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 465,755 | Gross: $1.59M
Emily: He happens to be the president, Charles, not you.
Charles Foster Kane: That's a mistake that will be corrected one of these days.
14. Paper Moon (1973)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
Votes: 52,424 | Gross: $30.93M
Moses Pray: I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples?
Addie Loggins: No, I don't know what it is, but if you got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!
15. On the Waterfront (1954)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 164,781 | Gross: $9.60M
Terry: Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you.
16. Hoffa (1992)
R | 140 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of the notorious American labor union figure Jimmy Hoffa, who organizes a bitter strike, makes deals with members of the organized crime syndicate and mysteriously disappears in 1975.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante, J.T. Walsh
Votes: 24,781 | Gross: $24.28M
Robert Kennedy: If James R. Hoffa is acquitted, I will, uh, jump from the top of the Capital Dome.
17. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Musical
A filmmaker attempts to sell a surreal script he has written, which comes to life as he pitches it.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: W.C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Billy Lenhart
Votes: 2,642
Ouliotta Delight Hemogloben: The only game I've ever played is bean-bag. The Great Man: Bean-bag... ah, it's very good. Becomes very exciting at times. I saw the championship played in Paris; many people were killed.
18. Duck Soup (1933)
Not Rated | 69 min | Comedy, Musical
Rufus T. Firefly is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
Votes: 62,715
Rufus T. Firefly: Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honour, which is probably more than she ever did.
19. Wall Street (1987)
R | 126 min | Crime, Drama
An impatient young stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless, greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Tamara Tunie, Franklin Cover
Votes: 165,097 | Gross: $43.85M
Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko
Gordon Gekko: It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
20. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 349,646
Noah Cross: 'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.
21. The Loved One (1965)
Approved | 122 min | Comedy
Satire on the funeral business, in which a young British poet goes to work at a Hollywood cemetery.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, Rod Steiger
Votes: 3,951
Rev. Wilbur Glenworthy: Death has become a middle class business. There's no future in it.
22. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
Director: James Foley | Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin
Votes: 116,134 | Gross: $10.73M
Blake: You want to know what it takes to sell real estate? It takes BRASS BALLS to sell real estate.
23. The Insider (1999)
R | 157 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora
Votes: 180,134 | Gross: $28.97M
Agent: Do you have a history of emotional problems, Mr. Wigand?
Jeffrey Wigand: Yes. Yes, I do. I get extremely emotional when *beep* put bullets in my mailbox!
24. The Producers (1967)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Music
A stage-play producer devises a plan to make money by producing a sure-fire flop.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars
Votes: 59,786 | Gross: $0.11M
Max Bialystock: How could this happen? I was so careful. I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?
25. Blazing Saddles (1974)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Western
In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman
Votes: 152,386 | Gross: $119.50M
Hedley Lamarr: My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
Taggart: God darnit, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.
26. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 348,926 | Gross: $5.32M
Morton: Not bad. Congratulations. Tell me, was it necessary that you kill all of them? I only told you to scare them.
Frank: People scare better when they're dying.
27. The Toast of New York (1937)
Approved | 109 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Notorious robber baron financier Jim Fisk, who makes and loses fortunes, tries to corner the gold market as well as the heart of a beautiful actress.
Directors: Rowland V. Lee, Alexander Hall | Stars: Edward Arnold, Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakie
Votes: 1,213
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt: [Yelling at Fisk and Boyd in the disappearing Jersey Ferry] You scoudrels! I'll run you down if I have to crawl in every rotten hole in Jersey!
28. Religious Racketeers (1938)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wealthy young woman, racked with guilt because she wasn't there when her mother died, is so desperate to contact her that she gets involved with a phony mystic who promises to put her in ... See full summary »
Director: Frank O'Connor | Stars: Robert Fiske, Helene LeBerthon, Arthur Gardner, Betty Compson
Votes: 80
Harry Houdini's widow exposes the Occult Racket.
29. The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
Not Rated | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A rural con artist and an army deserter cheat the townsfolk and are aided by a rich gal who shields the fleeing duo from the wrath of the pursuing sheriff.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: George C. Scott, Sue Lyon, Harry Morgan, Jack Albertson
Votes: 2,466
Mordecai Jones: Son, you'd be amazed at the hundreds of satisfied students I've matriculated over the last 50 years!
30. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
PG-13 | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Barely 17 yet, Frank is a skilled forger who has passed as a doctor, lawyer and pilot. FBI agent Carl becomes obsessed with tracking down the con man, who only revels in the pursuit.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen
Votes: 1,094,506 | Gross: $164.62M
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: Brenda, I don't want to lie to you anymore. All right? I'm not a doctor. I never went to medical school. I'm not a lawyer, or a Harvard graduate, or a Lutheran. Brenda, I ran away from home a year and a half ago when I was 16.
Brenda Strong: Frank? Frank? You're not a Lutheran?
31. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 279,716 | Gross: $159.60M
Doyle Lonnegan: Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly; how does he do it?
Johnny Hooker: He cheats.
32. The Lady Eve (1941)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 23,367
Jean Harrington: Boy, would I like to see you givin' some old harpie the three in one!
"Colonel" Harrington: Don't be vulgar, Jean. Let us be crooked, but never common.
33. The Grifters (1990)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A small-time conman has torn loyalties between his estranged mother and new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Jan Munroe
Votes: 30,531 | Gross: $13.45M
Bobo Justus: One question. Do you want to stick to that story, or do you want to keep your teeth?
Lilly Dillon: I want to keep my teeth.
34. The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An obese, embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs.
Directors: Leonard Kastle, Donald Volkman | Stars: Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco, Mary Jane Higby, Doris Roberts
Votes: 5,828 | Gross: $0.46M
Martha Beck: [after making their first kill] Do you want the light on or off?
Raymond Fernandez: Leave the light on. I want to make love.
35. Matchstick Men (2003)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A phobic con artist and his protégé are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the former's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Alison Lohman, Sam Rockwell, Bruce Altman
Votes: 138,242 | Gross: $36.91M
Angela: She said you were a bad guy. You don't seem like a bad guy.
Roy: That's what makes me good at it.
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