base on the story of bos tom pendergast of kansas city who rule the roost there succeed brother jim from world war i until the outbreak of world war ii and john payne deliver a rivet portrayal of a political bos back in the day when these guy be at their height run our nation city . mostly and but not all be democrat who round up and register the foreign ethnic population and get them to vote for the party slate . in the day before social welfare become a responsibility of government and these boss while they enrich themselves also feed a lot of hungry people and give them food and fuel for a winter . tom pendergast be no exception there . when talk about some of the fact of the pendergast machine operation and the screenplay by dalton trumbo under the pseudonym ben l. parry stick pretty close to the fact . in fact pendergast do do the thing describe in the film to a country club that high hat him . the romantic angle however of payne be in love with doe avedon who marry best friend william bishop and then marry plain jane gloria mcgehee in a moment of drunken weakness be a complete fabrication . in fact pendergast private life as far a we know be a model of probity and he and his wife raise several child and unlike here where he show to be a man alone even keep his wife at room length away . the character of joe flynn and later captain binghamton on mchale navy be harry truman who be a county judge ( commissioner ) for jackson county and missouri and later united state senator . truman himself be honest and but he also wink and nod at the corruption of others and some of the crony he put into office a president embarrass him no end . ward bos roy robert and payne brother be james pendergast and it be true he run a good chunk of kansas city from his saloon . it also quite true that pendergast do make a deal with organize crime there who do open speakeasy in kansas city like every place else in the usa . the famous kansa city massacre do have a bad effect on his public image although not a immediately influential in bring him down as show in the bos . the bos be a no frill uncompromising look at the soft underbelly of corruption in america back in the day . it a well acted drama with john payne in one of his best dramatic performance .