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."

Lazy writing and directing. John Payne overacts to try to compensate. Payne was losing his fight with Hollywood and the bottle by the time this part came around.

There is no insight into what drives the main character, so you really don't have any hate or sympathy for him. You just can't wait for the inevitable end.

A political fixer rises to the top of a corrupt city and beyond.

This is a movie that cries out for a bigger budget than the cheapjack values the production gets. After all, Brady (Payne) is supposed to be swimming in money and influence as head of a political machine. So we need to see some of that gilded life in order to appreciate his final tumble from the heights. Instead, we get endless seedy conflabs with his cronies or his long-suffering wife. In that sense, the production more resembles a TV drama, say The Untouchables, than a feature length movie.

Also undercutting the effect is actor Payne's heavy-handed turn as the boss. Reviewer Plankton's correct, Payne's incessant growling is almost comical at times. It's an unfortunate one-note performance that over-does the toughness of a political fixer without the necessary slickness. Then too, writer Trumbo's script only hints at the social effects of Brady's corrupt regime without the dirty details—a rather strange outcome for a leftist writer, but then this is the Cold War 1950's.

On the plus side is obscure actress McGehee's sensitive turn as Brady's unloved wife. Her plain-faced predicament is handled with considerable feeling that, to me, is the film's only memorable part. Also actor Bishop does well as Brady's lawyer and confidant. Too bad his career was cut short by an untimely passing.

Perhaps I was expecting too much, but the movie came as an unfortunate disappointment. I'm just sorry a studio with resources like Warner's, along with a Sam Fuller, didn't get the material first.

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.

The Boss, filmed from a script by the blacklisted and hence uncredited Dalton Trumbo, starts in 1919 and ends somewhere in the Great Depression. It's about the corruption of a municipal machine that focuses on demobbed doughboy John Payne who, when his older brother dies, inherits his political clout.

On the night of his return he godrunk and married a stranger he comes to scorn (Gloria McGhee, whomakes you yearn for more of her). His only unwavering loyalty lies withan old wartime buddy (William Bishop), who has married the girl Payne loved. So all his passion goes into strengthening his hold over the city, including forging an unholy alliance with the (unnamed) Mafia.

Despite a precisely staged shootout in the train depot (did Brian De Palma borrow from this as well as from The Battleship Potemkin, for The Untouchables?), The Boss is really a somewhat Kane-ish look at the rise and fall of a lone wolf; Payne's tough yet touching performance lends an almost tragic tinge. The result is an involving period piece that dwells on the late fringes of film noir.

(One topical note: the men's costumes were by Dick Cheney.)