A good depiction of a "sweat shop" that used the "piece work" method of pay. An employee was paid a very low hourly wage in the "piece work" system that paid by the unit. If the worker made enough "pieces" at a certain rate, they would be paid the higher of the two: the hourly rate or the rate based on the number of pieces they produced. They system encouraged employees to work fast and to not take breaks. The "piece work" system was common across the manufacturing industry until unions put an end to it.
Robert Aldrich was fired as director and replaced by Vincent Sherman with two weeks left before completion. Sherman received sole screen credit. Sherman had been gray-listed and this was his first screen credit in five years.
Robert Aldrich dismissed the idea that he had been fired from this movie because Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, had learned that the character of the megalomaniac studio boss in Aldrich's earlier film, "The Big Knife", had been based on him. Aldrich pointed out that he had already made "Autumn Leaves" for the studio, that the "Big Knife" character had been rather more obviously based on Louis B. Mayer and that Cohn had, in any case, been rather amused by the connection. The real reason for his dismissal, he claimed, was that he had made "The Garment Jungle" too tough, violent and uncompromising, ignoring frequent calls by Cohn and also, more pointedly, by leading man Lee J. Cobb, to soften the story-line and certain characters. When Aldrich came down with mild influenza and missed a day's work on December 4th, 1956, this provided the excuse for him to be fired. It is usually said that he was only five days away from the scheduled completion of the movie, but, with Vincent Sherman now directing, the filming went on until December 20th. Some sources hint that Sherman re-shot several scenes to make them less violent. Aldrich could not comment on this as he refused to see the film (and never did).
Robert Aldrich never watched the final work on the film after his departure, fired by mogul Harry Cohn.
Final film of Diane DeLaire.
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