The sophisticated yet cynical film of the early 60s is a bleak assessment of corporate America, big business and capitalism, success, and the work ethic, when a lowly but ambitious accountant enables his climb up the corporate ladder by ingratiating himself to his superiors - he literally prostitutes his own standards and moral integrity and allows himself to be exploited.In a timely identification, he word ""Lolita"" appears superimposed along the top of the foot.The cushioning left hand (wearing a wedding ring) of a subservient, enslaved male cradles her foot and his right hand lovingly and devotedly paints her toenails with bright enamel - at intervals, he wedges cotton tufts between her toes.Sheldrake sleekly responds with:Sheldrake: How many charter members are there in his little club of yours?...when the hands point up - the excitement starts!" [Director Howard Hawks and actor John Wayne both responded to the liberal preachiness of this ""un-American"" film (and its cowardly townspeople) by creating a no-nonsense, right-wing rebuttal inRio Bravo (1959).