Sindicato del terror

This a fabulous film .

A brutal ,dark depiction of Mob graft in the 1950s it has a career best performance from Mickey Rooney , as a horrific and nasty union boss ( yes really ) and excellent support from Steve Cochran and Mamie van Doren.

The opening scene has Charlie Chaplin Jrs character thrown in the back of a mixing cement truck and the portrayal of mob violence doesn't hold back .

Ray Danton as the main crim is so cool he could be in Blue Rondo A La Turk and the soundtrack by Van Alexander is terrific .

This is the darker half-brother of On the Waterfront but should be far better known.

Mickey Rooney generally not one of my fave actors is utterly riveting as the cocky, vicious corrupt union boss. Great storyline a film where you don't even want to blink & miss what the hell's gonna happen next. Tho in a non speaking role Ray Danton is chilling as a hitman he leaves you in no doubt he's a psycho that kills for kicks. The following year he played the title role in the excellent Rise & Fall of Legs Diamond & was superb in that. A very underrated movie well worth seeing.

I loved this picture, The Big Operator, because it reminded me of the pictures I went to see as a young teenager in the late 50's. I remember seeing Steve Cochran in I Mobster at the time and really liked him. He's the good union man in The Big Operator, married to Mamie Van Doren, when he's approached to lie on the witness stand against the corrupt union boss played by the diminutive Mickey Rooney. Rooney, who is terrific, if not slightly over playing his James Cagney style Mr Nasty, has kidnapped Cochran's kid, played by Jay North. He's holding the kid in order to blackmail Cochran into retracting his evidence against Rooney. Ray Danton, Jim Backus, Jackie Coogan and Mel Torme are along for the ride as well as some other famous characters in smaller parts. Torme, or the velvet fog, is surprisingly effective as Cochran's tough little pal. For a world class jazz singer, he's a surprisingly good actor too. The underrated Leo Gordon is on hand for the really brutal stuff and he should have made it much bigger on screen as he was an actor at the time in a similar vein to Charles Bronson. I believe he was also a successful writer for movies. The ending is a bit far fetched but this little B movie gripped me from beginning to end and Rooney and Cochran are worth the entrance fee.

This violent gangster thriller shows how fast pacing can succeed in building tension despite several implausibilities in plotting and characterization. Mickey Rooney shows he could play a thoroughly nasty individual, but his Joe Braun comes over as little more than a caricature. Several incidents strain credibility, not least when one man is seen going up in flames, and is presumably killed, only to emerge later wearing a few strips of sticking plaster but otherwise OK. Despite these faults, the film remains eminently watchable. Steve Cochran gives one of the better performances as the hero.

At five feet two inches, Mickey Rooney must have been Hollywood's smallest big operator. The words arrogant, deceitful and bigoted barely scratch the surface of this thoroughly odious character, immersed to the eyeballs in union corruption, underhand dealings and with a misguided view that anyone can be bought at the right price or, if necessary, with sufficient muscle, but not his!

He receives a mixed reception in addressing a blue collar meeting with a bumptious delivery of bad jokes and even worse puns, but his mood changes upon recognizing two individuals (Steve Cochran and Mel Torme), who could potentially identify him for his tawdry activities. In attempting to buy them off, Rooney encounters two insurmountable and previously alien obstacles: decency and integrity. Cochran, the diligent salt of the earth, family man, coolly dismisses him, whilst the more animated, vocal Torme sees red, (years before Zaz turned blue). Rooney's escalating exasperation with each must have driven his blood pressure off the scale, but at least the script writers offered some clemency, lightening his load, by allowing him to repeat the line, "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment" ad nauseam.

Kidnapping, torture, bullying picketts, the constant sense of threat, which results in Torme being burned on the same day he narrowly avoided being fired. This 'I'm Alright Jack' without the laughs turns surprisingly brutal, orchestrated by the mob heavy, safety in numbers clan, but curiously offset by an extravagant punch-up, rooted as much in comedy western as film noir.

Not exceptional, but a solid, grounded engaging statement on some of the salient issues of the time. Ultimately projecting an ethos of resisting violence and villainy every bit as pertinent today.