- An adman attempts to rebuild his shattered life after suffering a nervous breakdown.
- Eddie is a very rich man who has everything he wants; money, family, success, but a car crash causes him to reevaluate the life he leads. Searching for the happiness he lost, he remembers his one-time lover, Gwen, even as his wife conspires to take his fortune...—Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>
- Los Angeles-based ad executive Eddie Anderson, born Evangelos Arness to Greek immigrant parents, has launched what is the latest in a string of successful ad campaigns, this one for Zephyr cigarettes, the campaign touting them as the "clean" choice, despite what are now the well known health risks of smoking. One day as Eddie is driving to work, he is involved in a major car accident, which could have easily taken his life, but which lands him in hospital with non-life threatening injuries. What only his faithful wife, Florence Anderson, suspects is that Eddie himself caused the accident in an effort to commit suicide. She is only partly correct as Eddie subconsciously changed his mind at the last split second to avoid being killed in the accident. Eddie and Florence have a rather clinical relationship, Florence realizing that he is going through issues, about which he doesn't talk. One of the manifestations of those issues is that he embarked on an affair that Florence is well aware of with a younger woman named Gwen, who worked at the ad agency and whom Florence refers to as the office tramp. Florence is not far off the mark as Gwen was hired primarily into that role for whatever purpose required. Gwen ultimately moved on after Eddie, when she realized that he was not going to divorce Florence. Gwen now lives in New York. Florence says she just wants to help Eddie deal with whatever issues he is facing so that they can move on with their lives together in a positive manner. During his physical and emotional recuperation, Eddie is called to New York to deal with his ailing abusive father, Sam Arness. Eddie's relationship with Sam and the lure to see Gwen while in New York affect what happens in Eddie's life in a holistic sense.—Huggo
- Kirk Douglas and Faye Dunaway headline in this high-pitched story of a successful executive who is forced to confront the realities of his complicated life. Writer/director Elia Kazan cast this riveting film version of his bestseller with top-flight actors who capture all the book's passions and nerve endings. Advertising executive Eddie Anderson has success in business, comfort in marriage and a gnawing despair he can't escape. So one morning, he turns his sports car into the path of an 18-wheeler on the freeway--and toward a tumultuous future. Kirk Douglas as Eddie, Faye Dunaway as his provocative mistress, Deborah Kerr as his uncomprehending wife, Richard Boone as his tyrannical father and Hume Cronyn as a manipulative family attorney all give performances of truth and power. Bold. Insightful. Carnal. The Arrangement is for everyone who's reached for the brass ring and come up with his/her own arrangement.
- Leaving behind his luxurious Los Angeles estate, successful advertising executive Eddie Anderson (a second-generation immigrant) on his way to his agency is triggered into a suicide attempt by the noise and rush of the Los Angeles freeway: he folds his arms and smiles maniacally as his imported sports car rams into a truck. He is not killed, but convalescing at home he refuses to speak except to inform his boss, Finnegan, that he will not return. He daydreams about his stormy relationship with Gwen, a voluptuous research assistant at the agency who has fascinated him by her sneering disdain of his tyrannical success as the idea-man at the agency (selling "clean" Zephyr cigarettes). Psychiatrist Dr. Leibman, engaged to treat him, is told briefly of his history by Eddie's wife, Florence, who knows about Gwen and reveals that Eddie's interest in sex ended when he broke off the affair. That night a horrendous nightmare brings Eddie out of his self-imposed silence, and as he tells Florence of his loathing for his life of perpetual "arrangements," she tries to listen sympathetically, hoping to spur his self-confidence, but periodically lapses into a bitter riposte because of his adultery. She persuades him to return to work, but cries herself bitterly to sleep when they cannot make love or achieve any satisfaction from their new understanding. Eddie's return is dramatic, but he insults an important client, upsets a number of office apple carts, and departs in a small plane with which he crazily buzzes the city. His lawyer, Arthur, prevents his arrest and induces Eddie to give Florence his power of attorney before he departs for New York to visit his ailing, senile father, Sam. In New York, he finds Gwen, who has had a child whose father she will not name but Eddie suspects he might be the father; she is now living platonically with Charles, an admirer. When Eddie's brother Michael, sister-in-law Gloria, and Florence arrive and threaten the hospitalized old man with institutionalization, Eddie "kidnaps" and takes him to their old family estate on Long Island, where he induces Gwen to come and resume their affair. They are in bed--Eddie pleading with Gwen to marry him and she furiously recounting with great detail all of the affairs she has had since they parted--when Gloria and Florence burst in. They manage to get old Sam into an ambulance, and Eddie is once again reassured and seduced into accepting "arrangements" by Arthur, Florence, and his daughter, Ellen. Gwen soon leaves with Charles, and after Eddie and Florence have another violent confrontation, he goes to Gwen only to be shot by Charles. He then angrily sets the house on fire and is himself sent to a mental hospital. Gwen induces him to leave the institution and escorts him to his father's funeral. He stares vacantly at the grave, surrounded by wife, mistress, lawyer, and family.
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