GamerTab That was an excellent one.

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

bkoganbing I am sure that Zachary Scott was cast in the lead role in Ruthless after the folks at Eagle-Lion remembered his debut in The Mask Of Dimitrios. As proof of that I'm sure that every effort was also made to acquire the services of Sydney Greenstreet who was also part of the cast of that film.Under Edgar Ulmer's direction, Scott paints a careful and calculated portrait of a driven and Ruthless man going back to his childhood. Some elements of Citizen Kane are present here as in several flashback sequences we see what has made Scott what he is today.What he's trying to do now is cover up what he's been in much the same manner as the robber barons of old by donating his vast sums of money. Like Andrew Carnegie when we meet Scott he's having a huge banquet where he's pledging the mansion and lots of money to a world peace foundation. Scott's invited a whole lot of people from his past including his oldest friend Louis Hayward who really knows him from way back when.And it's back in his childhood just as we were introduced to Charles Foster Kane and the events that shaped we are likewise meeting Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, and Diana Lynn as the characters they are before they are adults. All I can say is that Scott as a kid was really traumatized by the antics of his parents. He goes to live with Dennis Hoey and his rich and genteel family which includes the daughter who grows up to be Diana Lynn and they give him a Harvard education.But what makes this a real Zachary Scott role is that it's not just business he's in, it's business mixed with bedroom pleasure. He woos many a woman and discards them with equal abandon. He steals Sydney Greenstreet's trophy wife Lucille Bremer for the 48% of the stock she has in her husband's company. Ulmer who may have done more with less than any other director around, gets if not a box office cast, a really competent one who suit their roles admirably. The script for Ruthless was written by Alvah Bessie of The Hollywood Ten and I can see why the GOP and Southern Democratic mastodons of the House Un American Activities Committee got their underwear knotted. Zachary Scott is Gordon Gekko 40 year ahead of his time. Some of the observations made by Bessie's characters could hold true for Lillian Hellman's Little Foxes as well as in Citizen Kane.A real crackerjack film and a fascinating portrayal by Zachary Scott in the lead makes Ruthless a must see.

museumofdave 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!

dougdoepke With a name like "Vendig" and an actor like Zachary Scott, you know who's ruthless without seeing the movie. Actually, the character here is an allegorical one, standing for the barracuda side of capitalism. Old Vendig doesn't give a darn who he steps on or how many "little people" he ruins in his relentless drive for power and riches. It's a heckuva climb up the proverbial ladder, told in occasional flashback that fills in the personal stories and motivations.It's also a great cast, Scott at his most arrogant, Lynn at her sweetest, Hayward at his most likable, and of course Greenstreet at his most Greenstreet. Too bad we don't get a scene between him and the equally corpulent Raymond Burr with its interesting possibilities. This is the impressive Greenstreet's most emotional and perhaps most pitiable role, especially when he looks forlornly into the mirror. Then too, in that last scene, he's almost like a berserk rhino and just as scary.The message here has been sharpened, I expect, by uncredited leftist writer Alvah Bessie. Except I don't take it as an attack on capitalism per-se— after all, Hayward's Lambdin wants to build things like the symbolism of bridges, but is undercut by his power-mad partner Vendig. Instead, I take Vendig as a 40's version of 1987's Wall Street where Gordon Gekko's barracuda claims that "greed is good". Likely, the movie's message would resonate with today's audiences who've also been taught a lesson by Wall Street's destructive side.Anyway, it's a darkly riveting morality tale that gets the most out of its modest budget thanks to a shrewd cast and expert direction from cult director Edgar Ulmer. My only complaint echoes that of another reviewer— the gap between nice boy Vendig and the power-mad adult is not properly filled in; then again, maybe it's because of poor editing. Nonetheless, what a nice bit of irony in the ending. Bad adult Vendig drowns where good boy from years earlier survived. In short, the ruthless adult has misused the opportunities earned by his earlier heroic act, and so, must return full circle to the water to right the wrongs. At the same time, the deserving Lambdin finally ends up with his beloved Martha, even if it's through her look-alike Mallory (which is why Lynn plays both parts). So things straighten out after all. All in all, it's a fine, under-rated movie, even if a rather bitter brew.

bmacv The combination of Edgar G. Ulmer (of "Detour" notoriety), Zachary Scott, Sidney Greenstreet, Raymond Burr and Martha Vickers, under the title "Ruthless," promises a fairly robust slice of film noir. Alas, what one gets is a faintly Citizen-Kaneish look back over the life of a heartless tycoon (Zachary Scott, who, whatever his strengths, was no Orson Welles). It's a puzzling movie. Scott was a poor child (Burr briefly plays his dad, dressed up to look like a carnival barker) who saved the life of a wealthy girl, whose family then took him under its wing. This, for some reason, became his sole act of altruism, as he turned into a self-centered, manipulative ladder-climber. The story does manage to keep one's interest, but just barely; Greenstreet provides some welcome slices of ham. But the script is tedious, the stylishness nonexistent. If this is your kind of movie, by all means enjoy, but don't mistake it for something it isn't. What it isn't is a tense little shocker along the lines of Anthony Mann's Raw Deal or Railroaded (which I foolishly thought it might be).