the story of tom garner open with his grand funeral and be tell through a series of elegant flashback narrate by his faithful lifetime friend henry . henry and his wife debate whether tom be a great man and a genius or an utterly worthless scoundrel . the film be beautifully write and act and direct and and i highly recommend it . tom be the fabulously rich and successful owner of a large railroad and dominate his board of director and his competition and terrorize his employee and slaughter striker . tom ambitious wife sally be responsible for all of tom success . when he meet her and he be illiterate and entirely content with his work a a trackwalker for the railroad . sally teach him to read and take over his trackwalker job while tom go to school . he start to rise one step at a time through the railroad hierarchy until he eventually take over a president . but a tom become a business tycoon and his marriage to sally gradually fall to piece . his spoiled son despise him and and he take up with a much young woman ( the aptly name eve ) and with predictably catastrophic consequence . in his business life and tom be a total success while in his personal life and a disastrous failure . much like the hearst figure in citizen kane and tom symbolize the best and the bad of the capitalist system . spencer tracy be terrific in the role of tom garner and the business scene ring with authenticity . colleen moore be also excellent a sally while both of them age beautifully in the multi generational story . the film be write by preston sturges and but be nothing like the screwball comedy for which sturges become famous .