Ruthless

Horace Vendig came from a poor childhood to become one of the richest men in America. One night he gives a large party at his own mansion; he is about to hand out money for charity. His childhood friend Vic comes to it, bringing with him someone who looks very like the woman Horace left years ago. As the night goes on, the film goes back and shows how the man rose. Edgar G. Ulmer's film, with its flashback structure and deep focus photography, gets compared to Citizen Kane; it is one of Ulmer's most ambitious productions. Zachary Scott plays Horace and Sydney Greenstreet the businessman who stands against him. The telling does not reduce the man to a psychological case; it shows, step by step, each time he chooses to use someone. The rise is not built as a success story.