The Garment Jungle
directed by Vincent Sherman
directed by Vincent Sherman
On The Waterfront looked into the mob control of shipping and waterfront labor activities, which in real life were in part controlled by Mafia boss Albert "The Lord High Executioner" Anastasia.
The Garment Jungle reviews the mob dominance of clothes manufacturing and fashion distribution, which were then overseen by people like Mafia boss Tommy "Three Finger Brown" Lucchese and top hoodlum Johnny Dioguardi.
Shortly before this movie was released, Dioguardi arranged for the acid blinding of a newspaper journalist who was exposing mob control of the New York City garment industry.
The two movies shared a star in Lee J. Cobb. In On The Waterfront Cobb played an extroverted and dangerous hoodlum who was quite similar to Anastasia. In The Garment Jungle, Cobb was equally boisterous but portrayed a garment manufacturer who wanted to keep his shop non-union and wasn't too particular about how he accomplished this.
Although both movies argue that crime doesn't pay, On The Waterfront is a more radical film. The Garment Jungle softened its critiques, perhaps because the film studio didn't want to be too pro-worker and be stigmatized with the "Commie" label and because Cobb didn't want his character to be depicted as too bad of a guy.
Sherman was brought in to finish the film after Cobb and the original director clashed one time too many.
I thought the film was also a little risque for the times, though certainly nothing at which anyone would raise an eyebrow today.
The Garment Jungle would like to keep the viewer's focus on bad actors within a system, of which it has plenty, instead of asking the larger question of if the system itself is bad. The Garment Jungle is not Upton Sinclair's The Jungle where capitalism is on trial; it's more of a family fight writ large.
Walter Mitchell (Lee J. Cobb) is a tough garment factory and dress distributorship owner. He's built up his company from nothing. He didn't get any help from anyone. So Walter sees no reason to allow some union to bulldoze its way into his company, protect slackers, and take money out of his pocket. Walter's very passionate on this matter.
However Fred dies in an elevator accident. Quite convenient.
Walter's war hero son Alan (Kerwin Matthews) returns home and wants to go into the business against Walter's wishes. Walter thinks Alan is too idealistic and lacks toughness.
One man who is both idealistic and tough is union organizer Tulio Renata (Robert Loggia) who is determined to organize Mitchell's company regardless of the physical danger to himself and his beautiful wife Theresa (Gia Scala) or the toll his constant absences take upon their marriage.
A new mother, Theresa feels she deserves more of Tulio's time and emotional labor, though she admires his refusal to back down in his battle for the working man and woman. After some initial mutual distrust Alan comes to admire Tulio. Alan also struggles with his attraction to Theresa. Alan starts asking his father uncomfortable questions about the presence of silent partner and obvious thug Artie Ravidge (Richard Boone) around the office. Ravidge is a very pragmatic man.
I was primarily familiar with Robert Loggia from his roles in Scarface, The Sopranos, and Independence Day, where he's playing tough guys of a certain age. In The Garment Jungle, Loggia showed that he was quite comfortable playing a roughneck (albeit a good one) when he was much younger. It's strange seeing someone move and talk the same way as a young actor as he did as an older one.
All in all this was a good movie that pulled a few punches when it didn't need to do so. The lighting and framing, particularly around Loggia and Scala , was impressive.
