Interesting study in the way of life of living only for worldly success and money. Zachary Scott makes the tycoon who from a humble start builds an empire but at the cost of everything human on the way. He simply refuses to take any no or objection to his ambitions seriously but grabs everything he fancies for his own and gets it - until there is Sydney Greenstreet, who turns the film into a very interesting drama, the finale towering into a frantic settlement with the inhumanity of ruthlessness.Among the others Lucille Bremer as Christa makes an intelligent impression, and Louis Hayward as the friend who sees Zachary through and tries to follow but fails to save him, makes a credible enough figure of a real best friend who fails for no fault of his, while Diana Lynn as Martha and Mallory becomes something of an enigma - it's actually she who brings Vendig's ruin but unintentionally, as her only power over him is that she resembles his first love, whom he deserted - it's not her fault.It's a very interesting story of opportunism, but like in so many of Ulmer's always most interesting films, the characters never really come alive. The acting is too stiff, and they act more like dummies than like live people, like statues in a grown up puppet play. Nevertheless, the film is still very much worth seeing for its message and lesson, as a morality of considerable weight, as people of this kind dominate and rule the world still today and make a mess of it.

The inevitable comparison to "Citizen Kane" is shared with other reviewers of this high grade Eagle Lion film directed by the masterful Edgar J. Ulmer ("Bluebeard", "Decoy", "Detour"), one of the best low-budget filmmakers of the 1940's. The two films share a story told in flashbacks of how the childhood struggles of a young boy lead him to become a ruthless businessman who seemed eager to destroy everything he touched. Rather than Orson Welles, the grown man is Zachary Scott, even more amoral than his rogue from "Mildred Pierce", and like Charles Foster Kane, his childhood issues stemmed from his parents, divorced for many years. His cold-hearted mother (Joyce Arling) wants him to have nothing to do with his father (played in a nice cameo by Raymond Burr whose movie career prior to TV immortality in "Perry Mason" and Ironside" consisted mostly of villains) but the young boy can't help but look him up. The years pass, women come and go, stocks increase, and soon, his list of enemies increase as well. He breaks up marriages, drives one business associate to suicide, and even schemes to take away the woman loved by his childhood best friend (Louis Hayward).One of the key moments is when he sets his sights on the young wife of the much older Sydney Greenstreet. She's played by Lucille Bremer, the older sister in "Meet Me in St. Louis", who is playing a variation of characters played in film noir by Gloria Grahame and Jane Greer. When Greenstreet comes to her room to tenderly offer his love to her, the disgust erupts, much like Mildred from "Of Human Bondage", and the film briefly touches on something very profound. But the over-abundance of characters and sometimes challenging screenplay makes this invariably a chore to get through without breaks. The other women played by Diana Lynn and Martha Vickers never strike a cord of interest for me, only adding a soap opera element to the "Citizen Kane"/"Dallas"/"Dynasty" feeling.The story is told surrounding an event where Scott is being honored, for what never convincingly felt worthy of him receiving. It is very handsome to look at, reminding me in art direction of the Julien Duvivier helmed "Lydia" with its almost grand opera like sets. Still, there's a very satisfying conclusion and the usage of a popular biblical moral that still resonates today and one that perhaps every business minded young person should study within themselves before heading into the cold world of corporate ruthlessness.

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.

Kind of cross between Keeper of The Flame and Citizen Kane, Zachry is perfect as the ice-cold schemer who confuses love and friendship for weakness and folly. Burr is great in minor role, explaining Scott's character. But it goes on too long, and after awhile, it becomes tiresome how many people with warning are still being taken in by him. After all, Zachry's smooth, but he's no Bill Clinton. Too, Greenstreet is over-the-top in pivotal role, spoiling some of the effect. Overall, worth watching, but by no means, great.