Zeus

The Big Operator (1959)

• Director
  • Charles F. Haas
• Writers
  • Paul Gallico(based on a Cosmopolitan Magazine story by)
  • Allen Rivkin(screenplay)
  • Robert Smith(screenplay)
• Stars
  • Mickey Rooney
  • Steve Cochran
  • Mamie Van Doren

  Mickey Rooney plays labor racketeer Little Joe Braun in this fast-paced and surprisingly violent drama about one man's determination to clean up his union. Bill Gibson (Steve Cochran) is Little Joe's nemesis and is one of the men who can testify that he saw the labor boss in an incriminating conversation with a known criminal -- something that Little Joe denied under oath. Knowing that Cochran and one other witness can bring him down, the crooked labor boss starts on a campaign of terror. One of Bill's friends is set on fire, someone else is thrown into a cement mixer (in the opening scenes), and finally, Little Joe kidnaps Bill's son Timmy (Jay North). The odds at this point, seem very much in the labor boss' favor.