A childhood incident propels Horace Vendig (Zachary Scott) onto a new path in life into the circles of the well-to-do and he does everything he can to capitalise on this unexpected turn of events. Having carried out a much-lauded good deed as a child, at first, his "ruthlessness" is not very apparent; he seems to be more of an opportunist as he attempts to valiantly bootstrap himself out of a broken, poverty-stricken, neglectful family. Although the story starts off quite glacially and tamely, the psychological damage caused by his upbringing and how this drives his behaviours is soon all too apparent. Even Horace himself seems to be at moments self-aware of his twisted personality and how devastating this is to those around him but his compulsion to persist in his Machiavellian maneuvers overcomes him, discarding business partners, friends and lovers like trash for the next 'big thing' as he clambers his way to the 'top'. Later, any glimmers of contrition and self-recrimination he had wither away as we see the 'ruthless' lengths he is willing to go to get the women and the status he craves. The noir-ish elements include multiple extensive flashbacks, ambiguity in the motives and morals of some of the players, a weird 'doubling' of a female character (the same actress plays two women), unexpected fateful reverses, and a "good versus evil" streak that runs through this film. This dark energy gets amped up at the halfway point when Sydney Greenstreet turns up as a bigger-than-life tycoon. His Buck Mansfield brings a fresh dimension to the movie as a wily big shot who Horace treats as a white whale to be harpooned, and whose position he schemes to usurp. In addition, there are quite a few other threads including a few romances that are not as straightforward as they look at first glance, and the meaning of friendship between men as they mature with different values (to say the least). Initially slightly dull, stuffy and stiff, I was pleasantly surprised by the increasing depth, twistiness, and darkening of tone of the film, with great acting all round from Scott, Hayward, Greenstreet, Vickers, Lynn and others. It is fascinating to watch the central character's initially quite blank and ambiguous character become ever more morally depraved (even deranged). By the end we get a somewhat nuanced and riveting portrait of Horace Vendig, a man we almost feel sorry for at some points: a sociopath driven by his own avaricious demons, who even seems to be sincerely ready to return to the path of 'good' at various times, aided by well-meaning people around him, but who is ultimately consumed by his own insatiable envy and overweening ambition. Get through the first 30 mins and you will be rewarded with a rarely-seen little gem.