Corporations and businessmen

I always thought that this movie was saying that the business world was the same as the criminal world. You could change Laughton's character to being a mafia Don and it would work. Laughton has a henchman, he keeps a gun in his drawer even though the building has security, he has another employee who covers up his murder,he expects total loyalty out of Ray Miland. He is a gangster/businessman with no ethics. He will calmly and cooly kill someone.