The Boss

John Payne worked hard to overcome his image as a handsome leading man by turning to more character-like roles in the 1950s, and actually producing a few films. He was effective, but like anyone else, he needed a good direction.

"The Boss" from 1956, written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo under the name of Ben Perry, could have used such a director. Based on the story of Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast, it tells the story of this powerful man whose reign lasted from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II.

Some of this is fiction, and some is fact. The personal life situation is fictional. In this film, the main character, Matt Brady (Payne) marries a woman, Lorry (Gloria McGehee) described by him as a "beat up alley cat" one night while drunk and after being rejected by his true love Elsie (Doe Avedon). All we hear about in this movie is how homely Lorry is, when in fact, at 35, she's a few years older than Doe Avedon and good-looking. To me it was bad casting. Maybe I missed a second head or something.

Brady is a crooked politician who steps on his enemies (including a country club where he was blackballed) and, as he rises in power, uses anything and everything to get his way and wangle big profits for himself. It's a well-oiled machine and includes his best friend, Bob Herrick (William Bishop) and others he can control. Eventually, though, things catch up with him.

"The Boss" is somewhat overblown, with Payne yelling through most of it, when he isn't drunkenly punching somebody out. It's way over the top, and I for one lost interest in the story quickly.

Not really much to recommend this. Doe Avedon, who plays Elsie, was the inspiration for the Audrey Hepburn character in "Funny Face."

Dalton Trumbo, who scripted this picture pseudonymously, was so anxious to make his political and sociological points that he (nearly) let the story and characters get away from him. The plot moves, not naturally or logically, but in order to serve the author's purposes. Characters who have been steadfast and dependable, whatever their motives, betray those close to them. The fulfillment of one's ambition requires unprincipled, corrupt behavior, with only indifference or contempt for those who are hurt in the process. The sole semblance of loyalty is found among criminals. Trumbo's viewpoint clearly grows out of his personal experiences, and distorts what might have been a highly effective portrayal of a powerful man who lost more than he gained. The character of Matt Brady is a given: arrogant, thoughtless, insensitive, impetuous. But why? As much as these characteristics help to move the story where the script wants it to go, we are offered no insight into the main character's psyche, and little of significance concerning his background. And his drunken insistence that he and the woman of the streets he picks up are to become man and wife that very night (and thereby provide another key element for the plot) is - to say the least - a bit hard to take. Yet with it all, this film has more than a few effective moments. Those, and the substantial theme being presented, will leave the viewer with much to ponder.

Based on the story of Boss Tom Pendergast of Kansas City who ruled the roost there succeeding brother Jim from World War I until the outbreak of World War II, John Payne delivers a riveting portrayal of a political boss back in the day when these guys were at their heights running our nation's cities. Mostly, but not all were Democrats who rounded up and registered the foreign ethnic populations and got them to vote for the party slate. In the days before social welfare became a responsibility of government, these bosses while they enriched themselves also fed a lot of hungry people, giving them food and fuel for a winter. Tom Pendergast was no exception there.

When talking about some of the facts of the Pendergast machine operation, the screenplay by Dalton Trumbo under the pseudonym Ben L. Parry sticks pretty close to the facts. In fact Pendergast did do the things described in the film to a country club that high hatted him. The romantic angle however of Payne being in love with Doe Avedon who married best friend William Bishop and then marrying plain Jane Gloria McGehee in a moment of drunken weakness is a complete fabrication. In fact Pendergast's private life as far as we know was a model of probity and he and his wife raised several children, unlike here where he's shown to be a man alone even keeping his wife at room's length away.

The character of Joe Flynn, later Captain Binghamton on McHale's Navy is Harry Truman who was a county judge (commissioner) for Jackson County, Missouri and later United States Senator. Truman himself was honest, but he also winked and nodded at the corruption of others and some of the cronies he put into office as president embarrassed him no end.

Ward Boss Roy Roberts, Payne's brother is James Pendergast and it is true he ran a good chunk of Kansas City from his saloon. It's also quite true that Pendergast did make a deal with organized crime there who did open speakeasies in Kansas City like every place else in the USA. The famous Kansas City massacre did have a bad effect on his public image although not as immediately influential in bringing him down as shown in The Boss.

The Boss is a no frills uncompromising look at the soft underbelly of corruption in America back in the day. It's a well acted drama with John Payne in one of his best dramatic performances.

I originally saw the film when it came out and only saw it again recently. Scenes from the film have stayed with me and I wasn't disappointed when it ran on TV. John Payne, The Boss, was a good Hollywood portrayal of a crime boss. The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are few. Crooked politics, payoffs, rub-outs, double-crosses, brawls, you name it and it's used. Payne was a popular actor in the 40's but I didn't appreciate him at the time. Based on this film I will try to see some of his others. If you liked Asphalt Jungle you probably would also like The Boss.

The Boss (1956)

This is kind of a great movie, a surprise to me, and with some stunning performances, great photography, and a sterling script (thanks to Dalton Trumbo). See it.

While the acting and visuals are going to get you immediately, the script will sneak up on you if you are paying attention. This is a movie begging to play with clichés, and it avoids them. Don't get me wrong, a mob boss in a small city is going to play tough and have cronies and the like. It's a good crime movie, for sure, and believable enough.

But there is, for example, no femme fatale (this is probably not a noir, strictly speaking, even if the dark crime mood makes you think so, but there are lots of noir characters and attitudes). The movie begins a bit off-kilter, I think, but if you think of it as a set-up for what a normal life would have been for the main character, it's necessary.

You see, Matt Brady (played brilliantly by John Payne) is a returning soldier with hopes of marriage as he marches in the opening parade. But then he gets drunk that first night home and things go very south. In another turn (not explained much) he starts rising up as a political and crime figure, becoming the big cheese.

This sounds like a Cagney or Robinson movie from the early 1930s, I suppose, and this movie is set in the 1920s for the most part, as well. But it has a different feel to it, and if you like those kinds of movies you need to give this a try. In addition to a friendly sidekick and his wife, who are regular sorts, there is a whole array of criminal types played well, with flavor but not exaggeration.

Why isn't this more well known? One reason is distribution--the only copy that I know of is a decent visual transfer with terrible sound (on Netflix). If Criterion took this up (or anyone, but I don't think a big studio owns it), it would glisten and be a late great example of its type, coming in the mid-50s as this kind of film was seeing its last days.

Payne, by the way, might be thought of as underrated--he certainly pours it on here, emotionally--and most of the movies I've seen him in he's a compelling type ("Kansas City Confidential" and "99 River Street") though he's a different and more boring guy in "Miracle on 34th Street." Here, the strong and silent type (Gary Cooper style) doesn't get carried too far. He bursts out at times, and has good physical energy on the screen. He might not be handsome enough for Hollywood, but that's a matter of taste, and tastes change.