Ruthless (1948)

Ruthless (1948)

starring Zachary Scott

directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

104 minutes

Horace Vendig (Zachary Scott) learns early in life the importance of money. He falls in love numerous times but every romantic relationship he enters eventually falls apart. Horace quarrels with Vic, his lifelong friend. He steals women away from other men but nothing matters to him as much as money.

Thoughts

I think I was thrown by the comparisons to Citizen Kane (1941) into approaching this movie expecting it to be substantively comparitive to Citizen Kane. Ruthless is not similar to Kane except in superficial ways. I would like to give this movie another try now that I know what it is and is not about. 

The central character in this movie is Vendig. He does not change very much over the course of the film. He makes professions of love on occasion but I never felt like there was much behind his words. He wanted to win in life but he didn't really seem to want much other than that.

I wish I could say that this movie spoke to me on some level but it didn't really. It left me feeling kind of cold. It has a moral of sorts about the cost of valuing money above all else in life. That isn't enough for me. Maybe if I watch it again I will see more in it but that's how I feel about this movie after this viewing.

...

I watched the movie for a second time about 24 hours after I first watched it.  The second time around I watched it at home on the Internet Archive.

Eighty percent of this movie is made up of two extended flashbacks. The first flashback starts with Vendig as a boy and focuses on how he came to know Martha Burnside and eventually left her. The Burnsides took him in when his parents weren't interested in taking care of him. He claimed to love Martha but in reality she was the one who was crazy about him. He accepted the comfort that her family provided but when he saw a better opportunity came along he cut things off with Martha and her parents and moved on.

The second flashback is about the further lengths to which Vendig went to make his fortune. His ruthless streak led him to leave Susan, the woman for whom he left Martha, and steal Christa Mansfield away from her husband. Once again he was motivated by greed. He didn't really want Christa. He wanted the shares of stock that she controlled. Vendig filed for divorce once he had what he wanted and found out that Christa had been unfaithful to him. 

The character that in some ways doesn't seem integral to this story, and yet is there throughout, is Vic, Vendig's best friend from childhood. He remains faithful to his friend for reasons that I can't fathom. I guess he thought that's what he needed to be, a best friend, despite what his friend did, over and over again.

Vendig's greed is what ultimately kills him. He doesn't seem to care about anything other than money. He destroys Buck Mansfield's life and then has the nerve to keep him around like a trophy. Buck can only take it for so long.

I got a little more out of the movie the second time around but I still don't love it. I think that in large part that is because Vendig is the central character but seems to be very one dimensional. I can see that he has problems but he never seems to change. He doesn't go through any sort of transformation. He is the same from very early in the movie until the end.

Zaxhary Scott was also in Mildred Pierce (1945) but this is the first time I have seen him in a starring role. Sydmry Greetstreet played the part of Buck Mansfield. I have also seen him in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

I saw this movie as part of the 2023 Noir City DC film festival.