The Garment Jungle
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''The Garment Jungle'' is a 1957 American
film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Vincent Sherman Vincent Sherman (born Abraham Orovitz, July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006) was an American director and actor who worked in Hollywood. His movies include '' Mr. Skeffington'' (1944), '' Nora Prentiss'' (1947), and ''The Young Philadelphians'' (1959) ...
and starring
Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
,
Kerwin Mathews Kerwin Mathews (January 8, 1926 – July 5, 2007) was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958), ''The Three Worlds of Gulliver'' (1960) and ''Jack the Giant Killer'' (1962). Early life ...
,
Gia Scala Gia Scala (born Josephine Grace Johanna Scoglio; March 3, 1934 – April 30, 1972) was a British-American actress. Early life Scala was born March 3, 1934, in Liverpool, England, to Sicilian father Pietro Scoglio, and Irish mother Eileen O'S ...
,
Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early lif ...
and Valerie French.


Plot

Alan Mitchell is a returning
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
veteran who joins his father Walter's garment company, Roxton Fashions. The firm has been paying protection money to gangsters led by Artie Ravidge to keep the
union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
out. Walter's partner, Fred Kenner, sympathizes with the union's goals. After he tells Walter to sever his ties with the hoodlum enforcers, Kenner is killed when the freight elevator he enters, which was just 'fixed' by one of the hoods disguised as a repairman, plunges 12 stories to the bottom of the shaft. Tulio Renata is a union organizer trying to organize the factory, who also later gets murdered by Ravidge's men, and his wife Theresa Renata endures threats against herself and their child. Alan Mitchell comes to sympathize with the plight of the workers. When he finally convinces his father to fire the
union-busting Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace. Union busting tactics can refer to both legal and illegal activities, and can range ...
gangsters, Walter is killed and Ravidge attempts to take over the factory. Theresa Renata takes copies of Mitchell's records to the police, who arrest Ravidge.


Cast

*
Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...
as Walter Mitchell *
Kerwin Mathews Kerwin Mathews (January 8, 1926 – July 5, 2007) was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958), ''The Three Worlds of Gulliver'' (1960) and ''Jack the Giant Killer'' (1962). Early life ...
as Alan Mitchell *
Gia Scala Gia Scala (born Josephine Grace Johanna Scoglio; March 3, 1934 – April 30, 1972) was a British-American actress. Early life Scala was born March 3, 1934, in Liverpool, England, to Sicilian father Pietro Scoglio, and Irish mother Eileen O'S ...
as Theresa Renata *
Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early lif ...
as Artie Ravidge * Valerie French as Lee Hackett *
Robert Loggia Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...
as Tulio Renata *
Joseph Wiseman Joseph Wiseman (May 15, 1918 – October 19, 2009) was a Canadian-American theatre, film, and television actor who starred as the villain Julius No in the first James Bond (film series), James Bond film, ''Dr. No (film), Dr. No'' in 1962. Wiseman ...
as George Kovan * Harold J. Stone as Tony * Adam Williams as Ox *
Wesley Addy Robert Wesley Addy (August 4, 1913 – December 31, 1996)R Wesley Addy in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claim Index, 1936-2007, retrieved froAncestry.com/ref> was an American actor of stage, television, and film. Early years A ...
as Mr. Paul *
Willis Bouchey Willis Ben Bouchey (May 24, 1907 – September 27, 1977) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 150 films and television shows. He was born in Vernon, Michigan, but raised by his mother and stepfather in Washington state. ...
as Dave Bronson *
Robert Ellenstein Robert Ellenstein (June 18, 1923 – October 28, 2010) was an American actor. The son of Meyer C. Ellenstein, a Newark dentist, Ellenstein grew up to see his father become a two-term mayor from 1933 to 1941. He served in the United States Army ...
as Fred Kenner *
Celia Lovsky Celia Lovsky (born Cäcilia Josefina Lvovsky, February 21, 1897 – October 12, 1979) was an Austrian-American actress. She was born in Vienna,Jerry Wald Jerome Irving Wald (September 16, 1911 – July 13, 1962) was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs. Life and career Early life Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were act ...
said the film would pay tribute to the efforts of unions to fight crime, and be shot in part on location in the garment district in New York.


Robert Aldrich

In July 1956 Robert Aldrich signed a two-picture deal with Columbia to make films through his own company, The Associates and Aldrich, and ''Garment Center'' was to be the first. Aldrich says he mostly agreed to do the film so Columbia would finance the second movie he wanted to make, ''Until Proven Guilty''.Aldrich p 8 Aldrich said Kleiner's script was "terribly tough, controversial". He said it was about how mostly Jewish manufacturers hired the mostly Italian mafia to help them with labor. Aldrich said "it was a marvellous conflict - racial, social, religious."Aldrich p 131 Eventually the film was made for Columbia directly, but Aldrich planned to follow it with ''Until Proven Guilty'' for his company and to be distributed through Columbia. He arrived in New York with Kleiner in July to start scouting locations. The lead roles were given to Lee J. Cobb, who had been in ''
On the Waterfront ''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...
'' (1954), a similar organized-crime-in-labor story for Columbia, and Kerwin Mathews, who was under contract to the studio and had just starred in ''
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures ...
''. Aldrich says he had to use Matthews along with other Columbia contract players such as Gia Scala, Robert Loggia, and Valerie French. "The presence of four newcomers can seriously overburden the director," said Aldrich. "But such were the terms of the agreement with Columbia." Aldrich called the movie "the first pro-labor picture; in it I am trying to emphasize another particular aspect of our times - the tragedy of the small businessman, caught between the ever expanding large corporations and the pressures of organized labor. The small businessman has often, in order to stay alive, compromise with graft and blackmail....
he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
should be an unusually frank film." Filming began on 12 October 1956 with location shooting in New York. Columbia rented and fitted out its own garment centre for filming.


Firing of Robert Aldrich

On 3 December it was reported that Aldrich had "come to an impasse after several weeks of filming" and would be replaced as director by Vincent Sherman, who had made a number of films for Columbia. Aldrich says "it was shaping up as a pretty good picture" when Columbia "suddenly realized they had no intention of making that sort of document; they wanted to make 'boy meets girl in a dress factory'. I was pretty stubborn, and Harry Cohn, head of Columbia, was pretty stubborn, and they wanted to change the focus, the force, the direction of the picture. I wouldn't do it and Cohn fired me." He said Cohn "became frightened how tough it was." Aldrich says he had become interested in the Lee J. Cobb character, the man "squeezed out by both big business and excessive labor demands and gansterism... also fettered by being Jewish, of which he was proud but also sub consciously angry since it interfered with his complete freedom due to the survival of some brands of anti-Semitism." Aldrich added that Lee J Cobb "was one of the sore points on that film. He had an old, long standing relationship with Harry Cohn; Cobb and I did not get along. He's a very strong willed actor - a wonderful actor but... That could have been a wonderful picture. It just ran out of guts in the middle." Aldrich said Cobb "didn't want to be a rough father. He didn't want to have people dislike him. And it was necessary for him to be a tough, miserable son of a bitch, not a good guy. So everyday someone or other would want me to soften the script." According to Sherman, "Aldrich and the producer were not getting along" and "neither one of them were getting along with Harry Cohn". Cohn asked Sherman to do "one or two scenes and I couldn't turn him down." Sherman says Cohn then asked him to finish the picture. "I didn't know what the hell was going on," said Sherman. "I re-shot, I would say, about seventy percent of the picture in about ten days time." "That was a strange experience," said Aldrich. "I don't remember another occasion of a guy getting fired for wanting to shoot the picture he'd been assigned. Usually, if you're fired, it's for wanting to change the script."Interview with Robert Aldrich Greenberg, Joel. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 38, Iss. 1, (Winter 1968): 8. Aldrich says he never saw the final film but was told "about half or two thirds of it is mine". He may have seen it later because he said Sherman made it "very quiet and very mild; it became a love story, also about a father who wanted give his business to his son, all that bullshit." Aldrich went on to sue Columbia for not financing ''Storm in the Sun'', a film he wanted to make. The case settled out of court.AUDREY HEPBURN WEIGHS FILM ROLE: Actress Is Uncommitted on Offer to Star in 'Diary of Anne Frank' for Fox Gene Kelly Takes Over Of Local Origin By THOMAS M. PRYOR New York Times 1 May 1957: 41. Despite the firing Aldrich admired Cohn. "I think he ran a marvellous studio... I think he did it as well as anybody could do it... He wasn't in the money business he was in the movie business." Aldrich says he had a chance to do other work for Cohn before the latter died but didn't go and "always regretted it."


See also

*
List of American films of 1957 A list of American films released in 1957. ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. A-B C-H I-N O-Q R-T U-Z See also * 1957 in the United States References External links 1957 filmsat the Interne ...


References


Notes

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External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garment Jungle 1957 films 1957 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures films Film noir Films about the labor movement Films directed by Vincent Sherman Films directed by Robert Aldrich Films scored by Leith Stevens Films set in New York City Films with screenplays by Harry Kleiner Films produced by Harry Kleiner 1950s English-language films 1950s American films