Strange NYC set Italian family drama in which no one is particularly likeable. Edward G. is the dodgy bank-owning patriarch who rates only one of his four sons, Richard Conte, who's some kind of criminal lawyer. He falls for the rather up-herself (but well acted) Susan Hayward, whose star was about to shine very brightly in her Oscar winning performance in I Want To Live!* Come to that, this was the film before Mankiewicz hit gold with All About Eve. (I remember William Goldman once saying that if you've been involved with a turkey, you must take on another project immediately, before the last one has had a chance to come out and die a box office death. Not that this film is a turkey - but I can't see it being a big hit either - it's too dark.)
Anyway the other three brothers Luther Adler, Paul Valentine and Efrem Zimbalist Jr, have no trouble sending Conte down the river when the IRS move in. Seven years later, he's not happy...
Mankiewicz has a smooth way of directing - moving the camera rather than cutting (Milton Krasner the DP), using a staircase in the old family home as a time transition device, and doing some good stuff with a portrait of the old man; as well as eliciting good performances. Debra Paget is the unwanted fiancee, Hope Emerson her mom, Theresa Monetti as the family matriarch, Tito Vuolo the barman (I think).
Philip Yordan wrote the screenplay from Jerome Weiden novel. Good stuff about the old country / the new country. Edward G's Italian sounds good - he was born in Romania, moved to NYC when 10. Music's by Daniele Amfitheatrof. 20th Century Fox.
* Get your facts right - that wasn't until 1958. Ed.
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