Il dominatore di Wall Street

That's the lesson learned too late by all the good souls who help ruthless Zachry Scott in this movie. Scott is appropriately hard and tough in the unsympathetic lead role, and Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, and Raymond Burr head up a marvelous supporting cast. Still, there's an element missing here, although I cannot put my finger on precisely what it is, that would have made this movie truly memorable instead of merely interesting.

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.

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" ("The Insatiable")

Note: On 23 Aug 2019 I saw this film again.

I call this Wall Street Noir as a way of simple classification, but it's a odd film from Britain's Eagle Lion, directed by the usually "B" director of Bluebeard and Detour, this dark film detailing the rise to financial power of a man who lacks ethics, certainly mirroring many of the financial scandals surrounding us today. Director Edgar G. Ulmer had considerable talent, and here is given a literate script, a popular leading man in Zachary Scott, and lots of outstanding support, namely Sidney Greenstreet, Diana Lynn, Martha Vickers, and in a small,unrecognizable role Raymond Burr. Its a talky film with rich visuals, and it is a sad truth, not to be a crybaby about it, but most available DVDs appear to be made from bad VHS copies taken from a television print. The copies one finds today runs only 86 minutes, while the original film, richer and deeper in motivation, is 104. Apparently the streaming versions are much better--and lets hope the DVD Gods read the various reviews and provide the print this film deserves; I have a suspicion the ratings would ramp up with enthusiasm!

This may be Edgar G. Ulmer's masterpiece. RUTHLESS is a terrific noir/melodrama - sharply written (by the to-be-blacklisted Alvah Bessie and Gordon Kahn), consistently beautifully photographed (by the underrated Bert Glennon), and truly adventurous in its editing and flash forward-flash backward construction.

Zachary Scott is the "ruthless" title character, but the title is more a cheap shot than anything else; Scott's Vendig is more an emotionally bankrupt, pathological character than a villain per se. The narrative takes pains to reveal - gradually - the series of events from childhood through adulthood which affected his perverse makeup, making for a fascinating character study. Subtle revelations and plot twists come about every fifteen minutes, but they're deliberately ambiguous when they hit the screen, forcing the viewer to pay close attention as the truth of the situation is revealed. This technique alone puts RUTHLESS way ahead of any other Poverty Row melodrama of the period and cements Ulmer's reputation as a thoughtful stylist.

Louis Hayward plays a sort of Greek chorus, an often acquiescent voice of conscience/best friend/nemesis who keeps the episodic story moving along. Diana Lynn (in two roles), Martha Vickers and Lucille Bremer each give terrific performances as the various women who appear, disappear, and reappear in the lives of both men. All are sharply drawn, a testament to the determination of Bessie, Kahn and other blacklisted writers to put strong female characters on screen in defiance of the Production Code, which seemed to encourage either submissive or predatory roles for women.

And as if all that isn't enough, Sidney Greenstreet drops in and sets the screen on fire in every sequence he appears in. A classic coiled spring, his portrayal of a similarly greedy corporate boss is perfectly slimy, and provides a genuine shock when he suddenly grabs Lucille Bremer by the hair and jerks her backwards for a kiss. Likewise, a later sequence where Bremer drags him in front of the mirror so she can brutally compare him to her new, younger lover is unforgettably painful.

RUTHLESS sits comfortably alongside DETOUR, THE MAN FROM PLANET X and THE STRANGE WOMAN, other Ulmer gems of note. A great movie.