The Movie, 'Patterns': Corpus versus the Corporation
A reflection on Rod Serling's 1956 film starring Van Heflin, 'Patterns' [Posted 2023-09-17, edited for typo 2024-01-12]
Image: From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patterns_(film)&oldid=1155298892. Notice the priest-like appearance of the presumptive villain, “Mr. Ramsey,” played by Everette Sloan with — in the poster — has the bullseye of a sight positioned where the pendant Crucifix would be worn by a cleric. The main character, “Mr. Fred Staples,” is shown with hands reverently clasped, as if kneeling in a church pew.
Prompted by Celia Farber’s Substack post, my wife and I watched the movie ‘Patterns’.
Celia Farber's Post, With Link, to the Rod Serling Movie, 'Patterns'
A few years ago, I wrote about the movie and am now have had my understanding deepened by paying more attention to the patterns in the opening and closing scenes. I was always a fan of Serling’s ‘Twilight Zone’, but was unfamiliar with this movie. The movie was cued up as a suggestion in my YouTube feed. (Are thought leaders and commenters, even anti-System ones, being groomed by worldly higher powers?)
The movie opens with the title page where, of course, the word, 'Patterns', appears against a nearly silhouetted backdrop of St. Patrick's Cathedral and other New York City office buildings. The term cathedral becomes an important term during a critical scene in the movie.
At one time it had been the tradition that the tallest building in the city or town was to be no taller than the tallest steeple of a church building.
The camera view sweeps from the image of a Celtic cross atop a structure at the cathedral, across the roof top and then ascends the steeple. Both in actual size, and from the camera angle, large skyscraper in the background towers over the steeple. In this camera view, one is unable to determine the height to which the imposing office building reaches.
In the soundtrack, a bell chimes out the melody of the hymn composed by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpis Christi. Probably inspired by an existing tune at the time, St. Thomas — priest, theologian and metaphysician, who was considered by the Church to be its premier Doctor — composed the lyrics "Pange, lingua, gloriosi, Corporis mysterium. . . ," translated, "Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, of His Body the mystery sing." The related mysteries of the Incarnation and Transubstantiation are pivotal, as Catholics believe, to the history of Man and his Salvation. Moreover, the faith of the Christian cannot be properly deepened without the grasping of the ontology of spirit taking on physical form, be it flesh or be it the accidental appearance of bread.
The plot involves the principal character, “Fred Staples,” butting heads with near heartless, “Mr. Ramsey,” son and critic of the founder, whom he assessed as being too concerned about the human condition of his workers. The rising star Staples was recently brought into the organization with the implicit, but initially unannounced, intention of replacing “William Briggs, VP and part of the compassionate father’s founding management team. The younger Ramsey, in contrast to his father and Mr. Briggs, represents the epitome of commitment to technical and systems-theory excellence in the production of an efficient organization, an entity whose flourishing and growth exceeds far exceeds that of any worker, even probably himself. Mr. Ramsey’s conception of justice and benevolence is purely materialistic. This is displayed in two incidents. As Ramsey hurriedly passes Mr. Brigg’s young son standing at a secretary’s desk, without stopping or being distracted much from his purpose, he urges the boy to take his vitamins. After Brigg’s death — for which Ramsey most assuredly was partly responsible — Ramsey informs Staples that Brigg’s son will be taken care of. This was certainly a decent thought and act, but Staples immediately raises the question of the sincerity of the act.
During a very important scene, Fred Staples and his ambitious wife Nancy, are hosting a company party at their home. Mr. Ramsey, also present, is self-isolated in the Staples’ library reading an unfinished report that Fred was working on and which Nancy — eager to promote her husband — has on her own supplied to Ramsey for review. Ramsey meticulously reads the report, assessed it as outstanding in quality and has detected Fred’s ingenuity in the work as distinguishable from that of Fred’s superior-to-be-replaced, Mr. Briggs. Upon entering the library, Fred is astonished that his wife permitted Mr. Ramsey to see the report. Ramsey corrects him and makes it clear — in harsh terms — that he recognizes Staples’ intellectual power and developed skills. Ramsey is also astonished that, in this case, Staples does not know that he is to replace Briggs and to enable Ramsey to lead the company in a new direction toward success. Nancy Staples re-enters the room with Mr. Ramsey’s cloak just as Ramsey summarizes his philosophy of business: “I just happen to feel that the atmosphere of a large corporation cannot be constantly cathedral-like.”
Nancy will play a significant role, the significant role, in helping to soften her husband’s perspectives towards accepting Ramsey’s ruthlessness.
In a near-to-last scene, Staples confronts Ramsey in the latter’s office. It is apparently an off-hour, no one else is to be seen present in the building or the corporation’s executive suite. In a display of his high regard for the furnace and hammer of success, Ramsey both praises and angrily challenges Staples. Staples explicitly expresses his disdain for Ramsey and Ramsey (inwardly pleased) counters with lucrative remunerative offers, de facto partnership, and even accedes to Staples’ demand that he be able to break Ramsey’s jaw if so impelled. Ramsey agrees, but only if the right is reciprocal.
It would seem that Fred has won a victory against Mr. Ramsey. It surely would seem so — one imagines — to Nancy.
But some patterns suggest that this is not really the case, not in Serling’s view. In the last scene with credits, the backdrop show a fuller New York skyline, now in the dark. No cathedral is visible. The skyscrapers not only tower, they dominate to the exclusion of all else. No church bells are chiming as the credits roll, nor are there bells pealing out the melody of Pange Lingua. The corporation has successfully supplanted the Corpus, that is, the Body of Christ. The only sound is that of a locomotive’s whistle and the faint and distant honking of traffic. It was the end of the 1950s and post-war America and the world, such as they were thought to be against all evidence, were are off to the supposedly bright future of industrialization and rule by a new era of information and cybernetic management. Even then, just ten years years later, Professor Carroll Quigley in his cornerstone work, Tragedy and Hope (1966), would reveal material industrialization to merely be the loss leader intended to ensnare [my term] that world in financial capitalism.
Ramsey won, and so has technocratic control — for the time being.
The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements [read, “conspiracies”] arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank. . .sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence co-operative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.
— Carroll Quigley