There's something of the "Animal Farm" to this powerful critique of the democratic process. Sick fed up with vested interests and corruption, "Stark" (Broderick Crawford) decides to fight the good fight against the establishment. Allied with only the steadfast "Sadie" (Mercedes McCambridge) and with half of the interest of journalist "Burden" (John Ireland) he sweeps the rural constituencies but the urban ones keep the powers that be in situ. Skip on four years and we revisit the campaign - but this time, "Stark" is playing a far more shrewd game. Still dependent on the quick-thinking "Sadie" and being followed by the now even more cynical "Burden", he seems to be able to fight on far more even terms. Clearly, he has used the intervening years to ensure that he can splash the cash and get himself elected. Once in the governor's mansion, though, his determination to improve the lot of his voters starts to see his lines of good versus evil begin to blur. Are his methods becoming exactly the same as his predecessors? Things begin to come to an head with his reputable Attorney General "Stanton" (Raymond Greenleaf) quits and the boss asks "Burden" to go a-digging throught the files to find a smoking gun. He's been an admirer of this jurist for years and so reluctantly agrees - but even if he does find something, will he share it with an increasingly megalomaniac "Stark" whose brusque treatment of his all-American lad "Tom" (John Derek) is beginning to have him question his loyalty to the machine he has been so instrumental in supporting over the years? The one thing I didn't especially like was the ending. It's a sort of cop-out that avoided the politician having to actually deal with the repercussions of his actions, but that very disappointment is an huge testament to a performance from Crawford who is on really sold form throughout. Add to his efforts the equally impressive and almost as ruthless one from McCambridge who treads on eggshells with some considerable skill and, I think, the best effort from Ireland that I've ever seen and we have an exercise in cinematic poaching-cum-gamekeeping, this is up there with the best.