This movie is sort of a bargain basement Citizen Kane. It follows the life of an ambitious opportunist who takes after women who can do him the most good. One flaw here is that Zachary Scott is not a credible womanizer--he is just not sexy or handsome enough.
The movie lags and drags until Greenfield appears with his wife-- here the biggest deficit in the movie also occurs. Greenfield plays Buck Mansfield a predatory corrupt rich Southern business tycoon/plantation owner---he is perfect in the role over weight etc.. But neither him nor his wife have anything remotely resembling a Southern Accent which would have really cemented the roles--and seems like something so easy to correct. Maybe because Ulmer was foreign he didn't realize this powerful bedrock of Americana.
And of course Hollywood can never let a bad guy get away--damn it.
Another flaw = the props are too cheap looking. In fact, the first time I started watching it, I stopped after about 10 minutes because of this. This movie also fails as it tries to copy Citizen Kane cinematography with long black and white shadows etc...the items filmed that way were things like fake chandlers--almost like a parody.
With more money...and some tuning and recasting this could have been a great classic.
Still RECOMMEND--
The movie lags and drags until Greenfield appears with his wife-- here the biggest deficit in the movie also occurs. Greenfield plays Buck Mansfield a predatory corrupt rich Southern business tycoon/plantation owner---he is perfect in the role over weight etc.. But neither him nor his wife have anything remotely resembling a Southern Accent which would have really cemented the roles--and seems like something so easy to correct. Maybe because Ulmer was foreign he didn't realize this powerful bedrock of Americana.
And of course Hollywood can never let a bad guy get away--damn it.
Another flaw = the props are too cheap looking. In fact, the first time I started watching it, I stopped after about 10 minutes because of this. This movie also fails as it tries to copy Citizen Kane cinematography with long black and white shadows etc...the items filmed that way were things like fake chandlers--almost like a parody.
With more money...and some tuning and recasting this could have been a great classic.
Still RECOMMEND--