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This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

My assessment of this film leaves aside the film's historical connections and the screenwriter's biography.The script, direction, and acting (with two exceptions, noted below) are one-dimensional and heavy-handed. John Payne performs in a single mode -- snarling -- until the end, when he woodenly tries to appear chastened, with equally unconvincing results.The feebleness of the filmmaking is illustrated by the relationship between the brothers Matt and Tim Brady. Their rivalry is supposed to be the key to Matt's motivation. But all that comes across in their encounters is the same unexplained belligerence that marks the rest of Payne's performance.His refusal to end his marriage to a woman he despises shows the same failure: the filmmakers are reaching for a complexity that lies beyond their powers (or budget), and the result seems arbitrary and schematic.Two redeeming features of the film are the portrayals of secondary characters by Gloria McGehee and Robin Morse. McGehee, as the unwanted wife, reads her lines with a natural directness that breaks through the genre conventions surrounding her. Morse, as a gang leader, convincingly presents a contradiction: an intelligent thug. This rare bit of psychological richness culminates in his distinctive walk, a lurching gait that seems to say, Because I can kill you, I have no pretenses. The director wakes from his slumber and holds the camera on this walk in two shots.

The Boss (1956)This is kind of a great movie, a surprise to me, and with some stunning performances, great photography, and a sterling script (thanks to Dalton Trumbo). See it.While the acting and visuals are going to get you immediately, the script will sneak up on you if you are paying attention. This is a movie begging to play with clichés, and it avoids them. Don't get me wrong, a mob boss in a small city is going to play tough and have cronies and the like. It's a good crime movie, for sure, and believable enough.But there is, for example, no femme fatale (this is probably not a noir, strictly speaking, even if the dark crime mood makes you think so, but there are lots of noir characters and attitudes). The movie begins a bit off-kilter, I think, but if you think of it as a set-up for what a normal life would have been for the main character, it's necessary.You see, Matt Brady (played brilliantly by John Payne) is a returning soldier with hopes of marriage as he marches in the opening parade. But then he gets drunk that first night home and things go very south. In another turn (not explained much) he starts rising up as a political and crime figure, becoming the big cheese. This sounds like a Cagney or Robinson movie from the early 1930s, I suppose, and this movie is set in the 1920s for the most part, as well. But it has a different feel to it, and if you like those kinds of movies you need to give this a try. In addition to a friendly sidekick and his wife, who are regular sorts, there is a whole array of criminal types played well, with flavor but not exaggeration.Why isn't this more well known? One reason is distribution--the only copy that I know of is a decent visual transfer with terrible sound (on Netflix). If Criterion took this up (or anyone, but I don't think a big studio owns it), it would glisten and be a late great example of its type, coming in the mid-50s as this kind of film was seeing its last days. Payne, by the way, might be thought of as underrated--he certainly pours it on here, emotionally--and most of the movies I've seen him in he's a compelling type ("Kansas City Confidential" and "99 River Street") though he's a different and more boring guy in "Miracle on 34th Street." Here, the strong and silent type (Gary Cooper style) doesn't get carried too far. He bursts out at times, and has good physical energy on the screen. He might not be handsome enough for Hollywood, but that's a matter of taste, and tastes change.

While Dalton Trumbo's political and professional travails certainly affected his outlook, I believe he looked more to conventional history in scripting "The Boss".Trumbo certainly used the corrupt Democratic political machine of Tom Pendergast as the template for his script. Small wonder. The Pendergast machine was one of the most enduring municipal fiefs of the mid-twentieth century.The crook that Payne is forced to make deals with in "The Boss" appears to be based on the real-life overlord of Kansas City prohibition-era crime, Johnny Lazia. The gunfight sequence at the train station is directly drawn from the famous 'Kansas City Massacre' of 1933 when 'Pretty Boy' Floyd, Adam Richetti and Verne Miller mowed down several F.B.I. agents and also killed the crook they were trying to rescue, Frank 'Jelly' Nash.Another interesting parallel between the film and actual history is that Harry S. Truman was sponsored by Tom Pendergast and managed to keep himself personally clean and advance his political career while remaining loyal to the Machine. Truman is portrayed down to his glasses in "The Boss" by Joe Flynn, subsequently known to many as "Captain Binghamton in "McHale's Navy".One little known historical fact that was left out is that Truman's first official act upon becoming President after F.D.R. died in 1945 was to fire the U.S. Attorney for Missouri who successfully prosecuted Tom Pendergast for tax evasion and sent him to prison in 1939.Truman was loyal to Pendergast to the very end.

I originally saw the film when it came out and only saw it again recently. Scenes from the film have stayed with me and I wasn't disappointed when it ran on TV. John Payne, The Boss, was a good Hollywood portrayal of a crime boss. The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are few. Crooked politics, payoffs, rub-outs, double-crosses, brawls, you name it and it's used. Payne was a popular actor in the 40's but I didn't appreciate him at the time. Based on this film I will try to see some of his others. If you liked Asphalt Jungle you probably would also like The Boss.