Promotion By-Pass (film #22 on AV Geeks. Also, film #1 on The Educational Archives, Volume Four: On the Job (Fantoma, 2002)). [Category: Industrial]

This is another “What would you do?" film for supervisors. Robbins, an office manager, gets a call from another office to "send over his best man" to take over management of that office. Robbins has two men to choose from: Bob, a nice younger fellow who's a real "people person," and Harry, an older guy who's a company veteran with an excellent work record, but whose people skills frankly suck. One guess who gets the promotion before you can say "age discrimination." Robbins tries to soften the blow to ol' Harry by giving him a long explanation justifying his decision, full of compliments and "you're our best man, but..." excuses. Harry seems to take it well at first, but when asked for his honest comments, gives Robbins two words: "I quit." Robbins doesn't know what he did wrong and the question is posed to the viewer. This film is more fun than the other films in this series. Robbins' twangy accent and exaggerated speech patterns give the film a positively Centronesque feel. And the character of Harry is well-drawn––you understand why he got passed over for the promotion, but you feel for the guy just the same. But this is the 50s, so you know the deck is stacked from the beginning for boring Bob in the grey-flannel suit.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.