Force of Evil

source: Force of Evil

The supporting players have a realistic appearance. It has a good, if slightly grand, script. Garfield is excellent, as always. The movie could have done with much more Marie Windsor and far less Baeatrice Pearson. Ms. Pearson is good, but she represents kind of a copout: She's the sweet, honest, uncrrupted character the audience is expected to root for. In a real noir, that would be one of the flawed, fallen major players.

FORCE OF EVIL has remained hovering over me like a ghost all these years. I was studying at Manhattan's Grand Street Playhouse at the time, and the political climate that was beginning to engulf the public had started. Polonsky barely hid the real undercurrent of this remarkable film. When it finally hit the VHS bins, I was almost first on line. I agree with all of the positive remarks on this strong movie, that has all kinds of ghostly memories hovering over it. I did indeed develop a strong crush on Beatrice Pearson, who was an established Broadway actress. She later did quite a turnaround, and even more effective role in LOST BOUNDARIES with excellent work alongside Mel Ferrer, Susan Douglas, Richard Hylton and Carleton Carpenter. From what I have read (if it is to be believed), she was difficult with a friend around offering advice at every turn. Pearson, after BOUNDARIES, returned to Broadway. Wherever she is now may be a mystery, but if she ever reads this, I hope she knows that this is one fan who still smiles at thoughts of her hair falling over the side of her face, her lovely smile, and the sight of her sitting atop a high hall mantle.

What is going on here? Something about numbers racket and collection points. Garfield wants to protect his brother who is a collector who thinks he is honest and for whatever reason hates his brother. Then we meet the obvious romantic interest (played by a first time nobody) with whom Garfield gets to impart snappy dialog while she whispers goody goody in response...of course she falls for him and they kiss and then they're all in court and she never wants to see or hear of or from him again except for two scenes later when she is sitting in a night club telling him to be good and go straight. Then there is the organizations enemy who wants in so Garfields brother ends up on the rocks at the rivers edge. Oh, and Marie Windsor is thrown in to wear slinky gowns and try's to get Garfield to smooch, but he ain't interested. Then a shoot out in darkened room and Garfield climbing down to see his brother on the rocks. He climbs down and down and down. I never knew the river(s) in N.Y. were so far down from the streets...at least two miles down....well, he see's his brother and then voices over how he's gonna help the cops make the world right and the movie ends. Obviously, I thought this was lousy. It is. Really clumsy direction with sloppy editing to boot. Extremely disappointing.

The VHS version I own of Force of Evil is one with a forward by Martin Scorsese. In it Scorsese says that this film was the first one that depicted a world he knew, growing up in New York City. Scorses was mesmerized by it as a kid and studied it frame by frame as when he grew up. He pays tribute to Force of Evil saying that you can see the influence of it Mean Streets, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. Of course the fact that the film was shot totally on location in scintillating black and white noir in New York City, gave it a dimension that no other noir films have, save possibly Night and the City which was also shot on location in London. John Garfield who was as quintessential a New Yorker as you could get plays Joe Morse, smooth lawyer for a big time racketeer Roy Roberts who is looking to either take over or muscle out the small time policy banks in the numbers racket. One of those banks is owned by Garfield's brother, Thomas Gomez. Garfield is as ruthless as Roberts, but with a velvet glove. He tries to get Gomez to go along with the syndicate, but Gomez balks. There's also a prosecutor looking into the numbers racket and a tapped phone which figures prominently in the climax. Given the leftwing polemics of both the star and director Abraham Polonsky, Force of Evil got the attention of the ultra rightwing House Un American Activities Committee. Polonsky was blacklisted for over 20 years and Garfield died under the strain of the investigation. Given what has happened to the Soviet Union, I wonder if Garfield and Polonsky were alive today what they would say and how they would feel about their work here. It's interesting to speculate. But as entertainment Force of Evil is a great success and that is the first rule of film. Also look for a good performance by Marie Windsor as Roberts's wife with a yen for Garfield. One of her first femme fatale roles and one of her best.

McCarthy blacklist victim Abraham Polonsky's angry and poetic film noir is perhaps the most candidly subversive picture ever made in a commercial genre, almost explicitly equating capitalism with crime in the metaphor of the numbers racket. It belongs on the face of it to the post-war-disillusionment school of American thrillers (eg The Blue Dahlia, Key Largo), in which the evils that ordinary Joes spent the war fighting turn out to be business as usual when they get back home. But what makes it so unusual is its insistence, contrary to the message of other social-comment crime thrillers of the 1940s, that it's a bad system, rather than bad people, that's to blame for the woes of the world. The fate of Mob lawyer John Garfield's decent, kind-hearted brother Thomas Gomez, a small-time policy banker, shows us what happens to good people who try to play straight in a crooked game. If the bad guys in the film turned good, Polonsky implies, they'd only get the same. Polonsky described the source novel, Tucker's People, as "an autopsy on capitalism". Sermon over: none of the above gets in the way of a raging, doom-laden crime melo that, like a snowball, gets faster and weightier as it barrels along. Superb New York location photography, a vitriolic script, and committed, sincere performances lock our attention to every second of its 81 New York minutes. If it weren't for Gun Crazy (scripted under a front name by another dangerous pinko, Dalton Trumbo), Force of Evil would be the best film noir ever made.

This movie is about the "numbers" racket that existed at the time the movie was made. Younger viewers, familiar with state lotteries may not appreciate the pervasive influence that was required to operate a nickel and dime play of individuals, that translated into millions that went to corrupt local politicians, judges, and police. One reviewer said the crime was petty which is true; but that makes the cost to the characters involved so tragic and cinematcally vivid. John Garfield acting is at its best as he portrays a person trying to balance ambition, romance and family loyalty. The minor characters are all nice people who found themselves caught in a dirty business that seemed harmless to everyone who played the numbers. This movie shows the real cost in personal terms. The writing, acting and direction of this movie excels any crime movie of this generation.

Didn't work for me. I like Garfield but as a Wall Street lawyer? Uh uh. The plot is weak. Some nonsense about a big shot bookie trying to take over the smaller bookies and sharpie lawyer Garfield trying to protect his brother, one of the small bookies. Mediocre script by Commie rat b______ Polonsky. Anti capitalist subversive. If you like John Garfield I think you will be disappointed.

The subject of the movie might not interest everybody.But it does not matter because it's mainly a criticism of capitalism.And anyway,Polonsky's directing is so stunning that remarkable sequences abound all along the movie : -The two arrests ,with the poor guy suffering from claustrophobia. -The very short scene when Garfield is frightened by his telephone,and the one when he uses it as a weapon. -Garfield in the street ,alone,surrounded by the huge buildings ,with this statue which seems to point him out. -Bauer's death in the cafe ,a film noir peak. -Garfield's desperate final search,when he finally redeems his soul. Hints at Genesis make Garfield and Gomez new Cain and Abel.They are both excellent ,especially Gomez who seems to die in every sequence ,exhausted,jaded,disheartened .The two female parts follow suit:Windsor is cynical ruthless and femme fatale to the core;Pearson provides the movie with its only ray of light.She epitomizes innocence,loyalty and tenderness.Her luminous face radiates and illuminates the whole movie. "Force of evil" is a film noir extraordinaire.Some will say it's doctrinaire,Marxist ,but it has intellect and talent going for it.

All the bad guys sneer. All the good guys agonize. And, true to his status in this cookie cutter movie, John Garfield alternates sneers and agony. Good camera-work and a few well- done pieces (I must give credit to the kidnapping/murder scene) do not a film noir make. In true noir, *everybody* is guilty until proved innocent. In "Force of Evil," the schematic plot gives us a cornball melodrama in place of gritty "realism." I'm not a huge fan of Garfield—I can take him or leave him—and here, wearing his angst on his sleeve, I'll leave him. The whole plot turns on brotherly love…huh? The innocent young thing was cute, but she was on display way more than her part deserved. Tearing the cover off the numbers racket, ironic in these days of state-sponsored lotteries, just does not set my pulse racing. I'll give them a few nice shots, but almost any second-line director could have done this film just as well. If this is your idea of noir, you have some (very pleasurable) learning to do.