something of a disappointment . lee j. cobb be the anti union head of roxton garment in new york . his partner in the business be kill when an elevator be unleashed and plunge twenty seven floor to the bottom of the shaft and in the scary scene in the film . cobb doesn not know it and or doesn not let himself realize it and but the man behind the killing be richard boone and who protect the business from union organizer . then cobb son and kerwin mathews and return from europe determine to learn the business and join his father in run a clean shop . he shock shocked . to learn that boone have be clobber the union member and kill a few who have become irretrievably irritate . robert loggia be one of the organizer who be kill by a couple of boone goon and lead by wesley addy . loggia leave behind a widow and gia scala and with whom mathews and understandably and decorously and take up . in the end and cobb pay for his self deception and addy and boone get their just dessert and and mathews wind up with the succulent scala and after whom an opera house be name . there isn not a sparkle in any line of dialog . a couple of line be steal verbatim from on the waterfront pistoleros and you will talk yourself right into the grave . the plot be schematic and hold absolutely no surprise . vincent sherman direction be pedestrian . the photography be flat an uninspired and though there be a couple of nice shot of new york street . lee j. cobb can act . in this case and it must have be easy for him because he replay johnny friendly from on the waterfront and only this time with a soft heart . richard boone can act too . joseph wiseman and in a minor part and do a good job . gia scala hit her mark and say what the script demand and and do what the director tell her to . a stunning woman and her life sour early on . the director and photographer do a good job on wesley addy . he have white hair and a blanched face and eye the color of a glacial lake and and he sometimes shoot through a wide angle lens than turn his surprisingly fleshy lip into those of some kind of parasitic fish . i do not see him a a low tier muscle man though . he and boone should have switch role . harold j. stone be his reliable self and although he force to be more italian and a tony and than come naturally to him . nobody else in anything resemble a major part be more than mediocre and and some performer do not clear even that bar . kerwin mathews may be a nice guy in real life and but he blandly sterile and belongs in domestic drama on afternoon television . great title and suggestive of intrigue and shadow . some good people in the cast . a potentially explosive expose of a business nobody know much about but which deal in megabucks . and it all come out like this .