Ruthless

Director of the Universal horror classic The Black Cat and the legendary low-budget noir landmark Detour (often called the greatest B-movie ever made), Poverty Row auteur Edgar G. Ulmer was, like Fritz Lang, a refugee from the German film industry. “In Ulmer’s remarkable body of work, the complex psycho-melodrama Ruthless is particularly worthy of rediscovery. A flashback-structured tale of a sociopath’s remorseless drive for station and wealth, with a relentless undercurrent of emotional violence, the film is often referred to as Ulmer’s Citizen Kane. The chilling tone is personified in a starkly muted, nearly expressionless performance by lead actor (and frequent screen cad) Zachary Scott. In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Ulmer said he envisioned his feature as ‘a Jesuitic morality play . . . a very bad indictment against 100 percent Americanism — as Upton Sinclair saw it.’ He called the screenplay, written by blacklisted Alvah Bessie, ‘a dangerous script, which had to be cut (because of McCarthyism).’ A contemporary review in the Los Angeles Times praised Ulmer’s ‘all-out direction’ — an entirely apt descriptor for such uncompromising work” (Mark Quigley). B&W, 35mm. 104 mins. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation.