Ruthless / Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-Screen

RUTHLESS, 1948, 104 min. "I’m going far, fast and alone," snarls grade-A heel Zachary Scott, taking revenge on the world for being abandoned by his mother. Diana Lynn co-stars as the unlucky girl who falls for Scott’s charms, poisonous Sydney Greenstreet as the snake who finally stops him cold, in Ulmer’s brilliant noir, an over-the-top variation on Welles’ CITIZEN KANE. Co-starring Louis Hayward as Scott’s decent and very disillusioned best friend.

EDGAR G. ULMER - THE MAN OFF-SCREEN, 2004, Kino International, 77 min. Dir. Michael Palm. On his own and in collaboration with movie legends F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder, from Berlin’s legendary UFA Studios to poverty-row purgatory in Hollywood (where he was blackballed for stealing a studio exec's daughter-in-law), Edgar Ulmer created a unique and heady blend of old-world culture and 20th century pulp pizzazz.