# The Solid Gold Cadillac
**The Solid Gold Cadillac** is a 1956 American satirical comedy film directed by Richard Quine, starring [Judy Holliday](https://www.edgepedia.org/judy-holliday) as a small stockholder who takes on the corrupt board of a major corporation, with [Paul Douglas](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-douglas-actor) as the company's former chief executive. It was produced by Fred Kohlmar for Columbia Pictures from the hit Broadway play by [George S. Kaufman](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-s-kaufman) and Howard Teichmann, with a screenplay by Abe Burrows, and it won the Academy Award for Best Black-and-White Costume Design.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | August 22, 1956 (United States); Columbia Pictures; black and white, 99 minutes[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049777/) |
| Director / producer | Richard Quine; Fred Kohlmar[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) |
| Source | Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Howard Teichmann, opened November 5, 1953, 526 performances[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2385) |
| Stars | Judy Holliday (Laura Partridge), Paul Douglas (Edward L. McKeever), Fred Clark (Clifford Snell), John Williams (John T. Blessington)[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) |
| Narrator | George Burns, off-screen; Fred Allen held the job on Broadway[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) |
| Awards | Won Best Black-and-White Costume Design; nominated for Best Black-and-White Art Direction[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) |
| Reception | IMDb 7.4/10 (about 2.8K votes); Rotten Tomatoes 100% Tomatometer from 7 critics[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049777/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/solid_gold_cadillac) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Laura [Partridge](https://www.edgepedia.org/partridge), an unemployed actress who owns ten shares of the corporate giant International Projects, attends her first stockholders' meeting and disrupts it with pointed questions about the board members' outsized salaries and decisions.[5](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thesolidgoldcadillac) To quiet her, the board hires her as a shareholder liaison, placing her in an office where she is given no information and expected to do nothing.[6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s999cad.html) She is also assigned to court the company's former CEO, Edward McKeever, into steering government contracts to the company; the two fall in love, a subplot added for the film.[5](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thesolidgoldcadillac) • [1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac)
With a stockholders' list slipped to her by a secretary, Laura begins a covert correspondence with small investors, and the scheme backfires: she leads an all-out shareholders' revolt that removes the crooked board and returns McKeever to the company.[6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s999cad.html) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/solid_gold_cadillac) The film ends with the title's payoff, a solid gold Cadillac, shown in the picture's only color shots.[7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography)
### Interpretation
The film sits in the mid-1950s wave of American corporate movies, a period when public attitudes toward big business had grown more positive after wartime distrust, and it acknowledges the era's concerns about executive greed and the reorganization of the workforce into the corporate mold.[9](https://journals.aom.org/doi/pdf/10.5465/ambpp.2007.26530842?download=true) • [6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s999cad.html) Reviewers have read it as a fable: the Los Angeles Times called it "a fairy tale of corporate America" in which the little people triumph over grotesquely overpaid corporate officers and run the company honestly, and MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher wrote in 2004 that the satire still had "all the bite it must have had in 1956," calling it a fit for the era of Enron.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-10-patt_10-story.html) • [11](https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2004/08/the-solid-gold-cadillac-review.html) The Harvard Film Archive describes the heart of Quine's film as the two lovelorn couples the plot works to unite, within a satiric fairy tale about little guys outwitting corporate bigwigs.[12](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2009-03/1)
## From stage to screen
The Broadway play opened at the Belasco Theatre on November 5, 1953 and moved to the Music Box Theatre, closing on February 12, 1955 after 526 performances.[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2385) Josephine Hull, then 67, starred as Laura Partridge and earned raves; the narrator was the recorded voice of radio comedian [Fred Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/fred-allen).[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) • [3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2385) The part as originally written called for a much younger actress, but the script had been reworked to suit Hull; for the film, screenwriter Abe Burrows changed it back to the original conception, and the 34-year-old Holliday took the role. A romantic subplot between Laura and McKeever was added for the movie.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac)
The rights changed hands contentiously. According to an August 1954 New York Times news item, producer Hal Wallis made an agreement with Kaufman, Teichmann, and Broadway producer Max Gordon to buy the play as a vehicle for [Shirley Booth](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-booth); a November 1954 Daily Variety item reported Wallis accusing Kaufman and Gordon of reneging and selling the rights to Columbia instead.[7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography)
## Production and reception
Location shooting took place outside the Pentagon, the Capitol, and the [Lincoln Memorial](https://www.edgepedia.org/lincoln-memorial) in Washington, D.C., and Congressman Earl Wilson of Bedford, Massachusetts appeared as an extra in a House of Representatives scene.[7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography) Although the film is black and white, the final shots of the gold Cadillac are in color; when prints were struck for television, the color was not reproduced satisfactorily, so the sequence was seen on television only in black and white for several decades.[7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049777/) A Pearl Bailey recording of "Solid Gold Cadillac" featured in the publicity campaign even though the song is not performed in the picture.[7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography)
Critics responded warmly. The New York Times wrote that Holliday was "knocking the role completely dead" and called her "an actress who has the ability to move mountains," and Variety praised the production's plushy look without color or big-screen assists.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac) The film grossed $2,400,000 in the United States and Canada.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049777/) In Belfast, a manager promoted it by sending a 1928 Cadillac touring the city; in the two weeks beginning November 12, 1956 the film drew 16,318 viewers there.[8](https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/9689/6/9781912702343_v2_web.pdf)
## References
1. [Jeremy Arnold, "The Solid Gold Cadillac," Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/153065/the-solid-gold-cadillac)
2. [The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049777/)
3. [The Solid Gold Cadillac, Broadway production, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2385)
4. [The Solid Gold Cadillac, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/solid_gold_cadillac)
5. [The Solid Gold Cadillac, Sony Pictures Entertainment](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thesolidgoldcadillac)
6. [Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant review of The Solid Gold Cadillac, DVD Talk](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s999cad.html)
7. [The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52008-THE-SOLID-GOLD-CADILLAC?cxt=filmography)
8. [Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom, University of London](https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/9689/6/9781912702343_v2_web.pdf)
9. [Bert Spector, "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit in the Executive Suite: American Corporate Movies in the 1950s," Academy of Management Proceedings](https://journals.aom.org/doi/pdf/10.5465/ambpp.2007.26530842?download=true)
10. [Patt Morrison, "In True Corporate Crime Drama, Little Guy Doesn't Win," Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-10-patt_10-story.html)
11. [MaryAnn Johanson, The Solid Gold Cadillac review, Flick Filosopher](https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2004/08/the-solid-gold-cadillac-review.html)
12. [The Solid Gold Cadillac, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-solid-gold-cadillac-2009-03/1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license