La giungla della 7a strada

Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Mathews, Robert Loggia, Richard Boone, Gia Scala, Valerie French, and Wesley Addy are part of "The Garment Jungle," a 1957 film directed initially by Robert Aldrich, who was fired, and finished by Vincent Sherman.

Cobb plays Walter Mitchell, who owns a fashion house, Roxton Fashions, that sells to the trade in New York's garment district. Thanks to a partnership with mobster Artie Ravidge (Boone), he has managed to keep the union, ILGWU, out of his shop. The union has been gaining ground in the industry. One union worker, Tulio Renata (Loggia) is determined to unionize the sweat shop.

When Walter's partner wants to unionize, he is murdered, and though it's made to look like an accident, no one is fooled.

When Alan (Mathews), Walter's son, returns to New York after being away for several years, he's shocked by what is going on and that his father seems to be condoning violence to keep the union out.

Some of this is quite good showing the problems that the union had breaking into the garment industry, as well as the brutality some of the unionists faced.

Viewed today, some of the film is over the top. I found Loggia and Gia Scala, as a passionate Italian couple, too exaggerated. In fact, theirs and Cobb's performances were too theatrical. Compared to them, in fact, Kerwin Mathews seemed bland until the end of the movie. Mathews found success in costumers later on.

Boone and the actor playing his enforcer, Wesley Addy, gave restrained performances, playing against gangster personalities. The beautiful Valerie French had a smaller role as Cobb's girlfriend, a major buyer.

One thing that was a little out there was a funeral scene - footage from something else was used - maybe Valentino's funeral? It didn't seem plausible for the character who passed away.

All in all, a good film, though it doesn't stand up against a film like Waterfront.

I'm in total agreement with the other reviewers here. This is a sharply-made film about a battle at a garment factory over unionization with terrific performances from Lee J. Cobb, a young Robert Loggia, and a menacing Richard Boone as a union buster. Kerwin Mathews gives only a passable lead performance, but then again his novice acting sort of fits his role as an outsider, which was necessary to give the audience a view of the garment industry from an outsider's perspective. Whether or not one scene or another was directed by Sherman or Aldrich makes little difference - the movie fits together fantastically, and has aged quite well. This movie would make a fine contrast to Paul Schrader's excellent 1978 expose movie "Blue Collar", which took an opposing negative view of the union.

Certainly among the lesser-known 50's racket-noirs (even many inferior are more discussed and collected), this one hits hard, looks good and has the unmistakable touch of prime-era Aldrich, though it was only partially done by him. Frequent cinematography collaborator Joe Biroc puts the stamp on that ensures a vivid look at a harsh story.

The cast is uniformly good, with Cobb leading in one of his best performances. The blending of two directors' work here unusually doesn't detract from the impact of this one. Look for it on television, or the hard-to-find, out-of-print video, whenever possible.

The Garment Jungle is directed by Robert Aldrich and Vincent Sherman. The screenplay is adapted by Harry Kleiner from "Gangsters in the Dress Business" by Lester Velie. It stars Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Matthews, Richard Boone, Robert Loggia, Gia Scala and Valerie French. Music is by Leith Stevens and cinematography by Joseph Biroc.

Alan Mitchell (Matthews) returns from the War to help his father Walter (Cobb) run the family fashion designer factory. Unfortunately he finds a business being protected by local hoodlum Artie Ravidge (Boone), who has the backing of Walter, and who is defiant in not letting the Union into the company. Things are about to turn very ugly and Alan is right in the middle of it.

Robert Aldrich is uncredited in a lot of sources, but the film was 98% his work. Cobb had a sulk about where his character was going, it all came to a head and Columbia head Harry Cohn, not needing much of an excuse to fire Aldrich (who was sick as well), brought in Sherman to finish the film. Or at least that's the party line story...

Aldrich's mark is all over the film, the harsher edges involving racketeers and violence are unmistakably his. The characterisations are pungent with varying degrees of menace, betrayal, cowardice and stoicism, with morals and ethics brought into sharp focus. Much of the pic is filmed indoors, which is a shame because when Biroc gets to photograph outside in the New York locales, we can see that we could have had a visual film noir treat. Instead we get a very good pro- Union drama with noir tints, though the softening of a key character, which Aldrich didn't aspire to, leaves you wondering just how much more spicy things could have been. 7/10

Writer/producer Harry Kleiner (Bullitt '68) obviously wanted to expose the shocking criminal involvement within the Garment trade but was trying to achieve it on a budget that was lacking. Columbia at the time had several new stars under contract and wanted to give them exposure in this picture - some were definitely up to the task; Gia Scala who went on to star in 'The Guns of Navarone' in '61, Sadly, a few years later would be found dead at age 38 under suspicious circumstances. Award-winner Robert Loggia ('Big' 88), went on to grace many movies with solid performances. Both were well cast emotionally convincing performer's. Maybe the weakest link was pretty boy, Kerwin Mathews -playing Lee.J.cobb's son. He would make a handful of movies then gradually fade out. Cinematographer Joseph Biroc ('Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte' 64) supplies the moody B/W photography.

This picture attempts to equal 'On the Waterfront' in its revelations about Unions and Protection rackets, this time within the clothing business but directors Vincent Sherman/Robert Aldrich were no match for Elia Kazan - and the budget needed to be larger. In spite of these limitations, the story is strong and well-intended and carries interest to the finale, that is, up to a pat, tacked-on ending that tries to wrap it all up in seconds. Good as a B - but could have been a fine A.

The new Bluray disc has been taken from a clean negative and sound is good but image is a bit darkish, if a good DVD can be located might be better.