TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

mark.waltz The inevitable comparison to "Citizen Kane" is shared with other reviewers of this high grade Eagle Lion film directed by the masterful Edgar J. Ulmer ("Bluebeard", "Decoy", "Detour"), one of the best low-budget filmmakers of the 1940's. The two films share a story told in flashbacks of how the childhood struggles of a young boy lead him to become a ruthless businessman who seemed eager to destroy everything he touched. Rather than Orson Welles, the grown man is Zachary Scott, even more amoral than his rogue from "Mildred Pierce", and like Charles Foster Kane, his childhood issues stemmed from his parents, divorced for many years. His cold-hearted mother (Joyce Arling) wants him to have nothing to do with his father (played in a nice cameo by Raymond Burr whose movie career prior to TV immortality in "Perry Mason" and Ironside" consisted mostly of villains) but the young boy can't help but look him up. The years pass, women come and go, stocks increase, and soon, his list of enemies increase as well. He breaks up marriages, drives one business associate to suicide, and even schemes to take away the woman loved by his childhood best friend (Louis Hayward).One of the key moments is when he sets his sights on the young wife of the much older Sydney Greenstreet. She's played by Lucille Bremer, the older sister in "Meet Me in St. Louis", who is playing a variation of characters played in film noir by Gloria Grahame and Jane Greer. When Greenstreet comes to her room to tenderly offer his love to her, the disgust erupts, much like Mildred from "Of Human Bondage", and the film briefly touches on something very profound. But the over-abundance of characters and sometimes challenging screenplay makes this invariably a chore to get through without breaks. The other women played by Diana Lynn and Martha Vickers never strike a cord of interest for me, only adding a soap opera element to the "Citizen Kane"/"Dallas"/"Dynasty" feeling.The story is told surrounding an event where Scott is being honored, for what never convincingly felt worthy of him receiving. It is very handsome to look at, reminding me in art direction of the Julien Duvivier helmed "Lydia" with its almost grand opera like sets. Still, there's a very satisfying conclusion and the usage of a popular biblical moral that still resonates today and one that perhaps every business minded young person should study within themselves before heading into the cold world of corporate ruthlessness.

secondtake Ruthless (1948)A great, layered melodrama, with flashbacks and male and female rivalries and a really strong narrative thread. There are a bunch of interesting actors at work who never had huge careers, the main man being familiar to me from "Mildred Pierce" two years earlier, Zacharay Scott. The director, though, is a favorite noir director of mine, Edgar Ulmer, who had a string of great films in the late 1940s. So this is one of them, though not quite a noir.In fact, this is a kind of financiers movie, which isn't actually a genre thank God. But the weakest part of the film (at least for a non-Wall Street viewer) is a lot of talk about business deals. Luckily, you don't need to follow them to the letter, because it's the characters--their tricks, their greed, their games--who make it come alive. And of course there are women involved (compelling ones like Diana Lynn), and memories of a childhood girlfriend, so we feel something for the good friend of the leading capitalist male, and even for Sydney Greenstreet, who plays an aging businessman, even amusing.The whole enterprise gets fairly involved and makes you pay attention, which is good, and leads to a pretty spectacular last scene off the pier.

Claudio Carvalho While in a philanthropic meeting promoted by the millionaire Horace Woodruff Vendig (Zachary Scott), the guest Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward) tells the history of the beginning and end of his friendship with the host to his date Mallory Flagg (Diana Lynn). When they are boys, Horace is a poor boy from a dysfunctional family and Vic's best friend that saves the wealthy girl Martha Burnside from drowning in a river. Horace is adopted by the rich Burnside family and later sent to Havard and gets engaged to Martha, for whom Vic has a crush. When the ambitious Horace meets the wealthier Susan Duane (Martha Vickers) that belongs to a more influent family, he calls off his engagement with Martha and moves to New York with Susan continuing his social raise. Later he meets the shark Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and seduces his young wife Christa (Lucille Bremer) to profit in business, leading to tragic consequences.I was zapping the cable TV this raining Sunday morning in Rio and I found this rare film-noir by chance, which has never been released on VHS or DVD in Brazil. Edgar G. Ulmer made a magnificent movie with a timeless plot of merciless ambition of a poor and selfish boy that wishes to climb financially and socially using and disposing wealthy women and friendships. The screenplay uses flashback to perfectly develop the lead character and his acquaintances, supported by awesome black and white cinematography and camera work. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Insaciável" ("Ruthless")

RanchoTuVu Apparently a brief exchange between the adolescent boy (Bobby Anderson) and his father (Raymond Burr) in which the father tells him that opportunity only comes around once, is the reason why Anderson morphs into the social climbing and ruthless business tycoon played by Zachary Scott. It hardly seems like enough of an influence to change a nice kid into a prototypical (and stereotypical) greedy capitalist millionaire. Though it's difficult to establish a connection between the two, Scott makes a believable social climber, and the story has a pretty good trajectory from his adolescence through dark mansions and well furnished offices with New York skyline views, to a finale gala event where Scott is organizing a philanthropy to unload some of his millions and ease his conscience. Ulmer doles out the action in bits and pieces, but delivers a pretty memorable ending.