Please don't spend money on this.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Hal Mohr's effectively low-key photography throughout this movie, plus two grippingly staged action sequences, are offset by a lot of small-budget dialogue and a hokey plot. Edward G. Robinson might have made the main character an interesting figure, but John Payne lacks the necessary charisma for such a role. The other players are not suitably cast either. And though some effort has been made to obtain a period atmosphere with a careful use of locations and the right stock footage, the final impression is negative, thanks chiefly to too much dialogue, too little imagination in Byron Haskin's direction with its over-reliance on close-ups, and two hammy performances (Payne and Gloria McGhee – a TV actress who made only three movies of which this is the first).

A political fixer rises to the top of a corrupt city and beyond.This is a movie that cries out for a bigger budget than the cheapjack values the production gets. After all, Brady (Payne) is supposed to be swimming in money and influence as head of a political machine. So we need to see some of that gilded life in order to appreciate his final tumble from the heights. Instead, we get endless seedy conflabs with his cronies or his long-suffering wife. In that sense, the production more resembles a TV drama, say The Untouchables, than a feature length movie.Also undercutting the effect is actor Payne's heavy-handed turn as the boss. Reviewer Plankton's correct, Payne's incessant growling is almost comical at times. It's an unfortunate one-note performance that over-does the toughness of a political fixer without the necessary slickness. Then too, writer Trumbo's script only hints at the social effects of Brady's corrupt regime without the dirty details—a rather strange outcome for a leftist writer, but then this is the Cold War 1950's.On the plus side is obscure actress McGehee's sensitive turn as Brady's unloved wife. Her plain-faced predicament is handled with considerable feeling that, to me, is the film's only memorable part. Also actor Bishop does well as Brady's lawyer and confidant. Too bad his career was cut short by an untimely passing.Perhaps I was expecting too much, but the movie came as an unfortunate disappointment. I'm just sorry a studio with resources like Warner's, along with a Sam Fuller, didn't get the material first.

I would have expected more from Dalton Trumbo's script. This boss comes over as something of an angel by today's standards. From a "leftist" writer this is somewhat surprising. You must not try very hard to feel sorry for this boss. I would rather have seen him murdering people with delight and becoming president or worse and, of course, never get caught. And after two terms as president, I would have had some lackey of his becoming president and on and on and then let him die of old age at least a hundred years old after having nothing but a "pleasant" life nurturing every lust and nastiness under the sun. This is not that kind of picture, for sure. He has contacts with the underworld but most unwillingly and when one of these contacts bumps off a policeman he is not happy about it and almost does not mind getting caught! Come on Dalton, I don't see much danger in bosses as far as this film goes.

***SPOILERS*** The film is obviously based on the notorious and mobbed up Tom Pendergast Missouri political machine that got future president of the United States Harry S. Truman, played by Joe Flynn using the name Ernie Jackson in the movie, elected senator. "The Boss" follows the career of a crooked politician Matt Brady, John Payne, from running the state of Missouri, that's never mentioned in the film, to running from the law and ending up spending his golden years in a federal penitentiary.Coming back home from WWI as a decorated US Army captain Brady was uninterested in following his older brother Tim, Roy Roberts, footsteps in taking over the city's Third Ward. It was after a night of drinking and fighting with his best friend Bob Herrick, William Bishop, and while barley sober marrying a complete stranger Lorry Reed, Gloria McGhehee, that Brady finally came to his senses. It was also after being dumped by his girlfriend, who would later marry his best friend Bob, Elsie Reyonolds-Doe Avedow- and his brother Tim suddenly dropping dead, after having a violent argument with him, that changed Brady's way of thinking. Changing it for the worst not the better.Being the top political king maker Brady controlled every politician in the state from Governor Beck, Harry Cheshire, on down to the local dog catcher. Ruthless and vindictive at anyone who as much as meekly disagreed with him Brady nurtured a slew of enemies who, when the time came, descended upon him like vultures on a dying corpse in the wild.Brady went so far as getting involved with the mob who's head man Johnny Mazia, Robin Morse, he helped out, from going to jail, when he was a teenager. This happened when Brady got wiped out in the stock market and was deeply in debt to Mazia's gang in him losing over $200,000.00 in his gambling with Mazia's illegal bookies. With Brady having no choice but letting Mazia's gang have their way they turn the entire state of Missouri into a den of political corruption and mob drive-by shootouts and sponsored hit-jobs.The final shoe to drop is when Brady gave the go ahead for Mazia to whack former gang member Morris Lazetti, John Mansfield, who was to turn states evidence against both him and Mazia in their criminal activities. This lead to what is now known as the "Kansas City Massacre" that cost the lives of a number of FBI Agents who were taking Lazetti, who was also killed, to Washington to testify.With public outrage reaching its hight the city fathers lead by newly elected District Attorney Stanley Millard, Rhys Williams, have Brady kicked out of his position as head of the Third Ward. On top of all that there's also a federal charge in the murder of the FBI Agents, as well as fixing both federal and state elections, also hanging over Brady's head.In the end even Bob Herrick, Brady's best friend, turned on him perjuring himself-in order to save his own hide-by falsely testifying that Brady took over a million dollars in kickbacks from a number of city insurance companies. What hurt Brady most is that he risked his life in saving Bob from being murdered by the Mazia mob! And this is the gratitude he ended up getting from him!In the end a beaten and broken man ,looking at least twenty older then he actually is, Matt Brady who even his long suffering and abused wife Lorry couldn't quite bring herself to feel sorry for is seen walking into the state penitentiary- Leavenworth- with his trademark Cuban Cigar dropping to the ground as he prepares himself to spend the rest of his life behind prison bars.