Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson), his voice dubbed by a gravely speaking Downey, is the story of a token black man on the board of directors of a large Manhattan advertising firm who is accidentally voted Chairman of the Board when a vote is taken after the current chairman keels over dead while excitedly trying to get out an idea about an ad at a boardroom meeting. Putney received enough votes from the whiteys on the board, who mistakenly thought their vote for him would be his only vote; each manuevered to get himself elected and were forbidden to vote for themselves.
Upon taking office Putney fires the board and fills the agency with militant soul brothers, except for one token white, and renames it “Truth and Soul, Inc.” He then changes course by refusing accounts for liquor, cigarettes, or war toys. Though most of the clients bolt the ad agency, Putney’s arrogant attitude wins over enough cowering masochistic liberal ass kissing clients to ply Putney with plenty of money. The self-serving Putney also abuses his new staff and steals their ideas without giving them credit, and starts up a new unconventional ad campaign featuring obscene marketing gimmicks for such products as Face-Off Acne Cream and Ethereal Cereal (the commercials made for the best comedy). The film is in black and white, but the ads are shown in color.
Here’s a funny scene from the movie that ended up on YouTube — it’s a boardroom meeting that probably takes place after Putney starts refusing to do ads for “war toys”…
The closing “You took him on the picnic hike, I didn’t!” line made me laugh out loud. I’m going to have to see where I can rent this movie.
(I posted another YouTube clip from Putney Swope in the previous entry.)
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I've found Zip.ca (roughly equivalent to Netflix) to have a decent selection of less-popular movies (especially compared to the ever-shrinking local video stores). The turnaround time is pretty decent, and the web interface is pretty good, too.