Although it was Griffith's most expensive film to date (costing him $175,000, more than the entire cost of his 1915 classicThe Birth of a Nation (1915)), it was one of his most commercially successful films.The black-suited Venom located Flint Marko and they joined forces: "Look, I wanna kill the spider, you wanna kill the spider.(Characteristics offilm noiralso abound within the film - unglamorous locations, rain-slicked streets, dimly-lit interiors and dark train passageways in a tale of doomed, unfulfilled and frustrated love.[Paulie was now working for Gazzo in Rocky's old collection job.] But after only a few days of tiring, backbreaking work, Rocky's apologetic employer Frank was forced to lay him off due to his lack of seniority and a cutback in non-union jobs.