Force of Evil (1948)

Based on an obscure crime novel titled Tucker's People, Abraham Polonsky's Force of Evil has attained classic status since its release in 1948, when film noir was thriving on the fringes of the Hollywood studio system, where the shadowy attributes of noir were allowed their fullest expression. Which is to say, this gritty drama is drenched in greed, cynicism, and corruption of the soul, as embodied by John Garfield in one of his most memorable roles. He's perfectly cast as Joe Morse, a lawyer whose connection to a ruthless racketeer has nearly destroyed his sense of morality. His participation in a rigged numbers racket could prove disastrous for his high-strung older brother (superbly played by Thomas Gomez), whose small-time policy bank stands to go broke when the rigged numbers pay off--a financial windfall for Joe's powerful boss at everyone else's expense.

Joe's corruption is tempered only by remnants of guilt and his redeeming attraction to Edna (Marie Windsor), his brother's secretary, whose common decency gnaws at Joe's rotten conscience. But before Joe can rise from his self-made hell, Force of Evil takes him to the darkest pit of tragic humanity--a downward spiral perfectly expressed through George Barnes's exquisitely stark cinematography. In style and substance, this is quintessential noir, its plot unfolding with uncompromising toughness and intelligence. More's the pity, then, that director Polonsky was later victimized by the Hollywood blacklist, curtailing a promising career for two decades until Polonsky directed Robert Redford in 1969's Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. It seems only fitting, then, that Polonsky's remarkable debut is now recognized as one of the finest dramas of its kind. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Down I went, down and down, down to the bottom of the world...

...down and down... and down

...down...

...down.

Wait, who was I listening to? And was someone else listening? Was I listening to the telephone? Or was the telephone also listening?

I feel it here... and here... and sometimes here... and here too... and over here...

The rest of you might fall for this poetry of the streets stuff, but not me. I got an ear, see, and it's telling me to stop listening.

The direction, cinematography, and acting are fine. Even the sound it good. But the dialog is just plain loopy -- and not fun loopy (like Janet Leigh's railway speech in Manchurian Candidate).

This is the first time I ever wished a movie had been dubbed
into Italian.

I don't speak Italian.
February 24, 2008

Force of Evil

A dark, cynical film about the culture of greed in America, "Force of Evil" helped earn director Polonsky and its talented star, John Garfield, a place on the Hollywood blacklist. With its edgy moral themes and exquisite angled lighting by George Barnes (who visited an Edward Hopper exhibit to achieve the look), "Evil" has influenced many, including Martin Scorsese. In his finest role, Garfield soars as a chiseled, hard-driving lawyer, abetted by Beatrice Pearson (as a secretarial voice of conscience) and Gomez, playing a stubborn businessman who equates his hated brother with gangsterism. Brutal and beautifully photographed. June 22, 2007

The art of darkness

Force of Evil was a massive disappointment to me when I first saw it, but on a much belated second viewing I'm amazed I got it so wrong. The script is superb, the cast excellent - with John Garfield and Thomas Gomez on top form - and the scam all too believable. The relationship between Garfield's numbers racket lawyer and Beatrice Pearson's `nice' girl is also beautifully realised: in most films, the `nice' girl offers the chance of redemption, but this turns that cliché completely on its head - his interest is just to see how easy it will be to corrupt her, and they're both well aware that she really DOES want to be corrupted but needs to be talked into it to give her conscience an excuse. Mirroring his similar efforts to talk his brother into the clutches of the mob, the dialog in these scenes is astonishingly good, carrying and complimenting the theme of the film but never hitting you over the head with it. And the explosive moment of panic-stricken murder is as powerful as it is unexpectedly intense.

No extras, but a decent though not outstanding DVD transfer. December 12, 2006

One of the classic noirs, with a great performance by John Garfield

Joe Morse (John Garfield) is a smart, cocky New York lawyer, and as corrupt as they come. "This is Wall Street," Joe tells us at the start of Force of Evil, "and today was important because tomorrow, July Fourth, I intended to make my first million dollars. An exciting day in any man's life. Temporarily, the enterprise was slightly illegal. You see, I was the lawyer for the numbers racket." Joe has a problem. His older brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), runs a neighborhood numbers operation. Leo is a decent small-timer with a bad heart who worked his tail off so that Joe could go to law school. He knows his brother for what Joe is, a slick legal crook. Joe is in partnership with a tough gangster, Ben Tucker. They plan to break the banks of the small numbers operations, then move in and consolidate them under their own hand. They'll make millions. Joe realizes his brother will be ruined and tries to save him. Events begin to spin out of Joe's ability to control them. Joe finally finds a conscience, but only after people die.

There are a lot of elements that work in this movie. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert centers squarely on Joe's character and his dilemma. There's no let-up for Joe as his life of legal crime slides into real crime and tightens around him. The script is not exactly poetic, that would make it self-conscious, but it is tough, thoughtful and vivid. Polonsky's direction packs a lot of action into only 82 minutes. You need to pay attention, but it all makes sense. The movie looks gritty and bleak, from the crummy apartment where Leo runs his numbers operation to the empty New York streets at dawn to the sad but redemptive scene on the banks of the East River under the bridge. There are lots of low-angle shots that emphasize the essential emptiness of Joe's character. The movie also is well cast. Some of the actors I particularly enjoyed are Howland Chamberlain as a frightened, weak numbers accountant; Paul McVey as Joe's experienced law partner; Roy Roberts as Joe's business associate, Ben Tucker, a gangster who is more ruthless than Joe thought; and Marie Windsor in a small but memorable performance as Tucker's slow-talking, smoldering wife.

More than anything, the movie depends on the excellent performances of John Garfield and Thomas Gomez. Gomez has to play a sick, excitable, overweight small-time crook who has a bedrock decency. "The money I made in this rotten business is no good for me, Joe." he says. "I don't want it back. And Tucker's money is no good either." Joe just looks at him. "The money has no moral opinions," he tells Leo. Leo stares at his brother. "I find I have, Joe. I find I have." Gomez has to show his complete disdain for what his brother has become but still show us there's some strength left in the relationship. Garfield is the center of the movie. He was an actor who looked tough and sounded tough, yet he was able in his movies to show enough vulnerability not to alienate the audience. He not only had a lot of charm when he wanted to show it, he knew his craft and was good at it.

The movie also is resonant because we know what happened to Polonsky and Garfield as a result of the Communist witch hunts that overtook Hollywood during the late Forties and Fifties. Polonsky was an outspoken and enthusiastic Marxist. It's no accident that Force of Evil can be seen as a parable for Big Business squeezing out the hard-working little guys. When Polonsky refused to testify before the House un-American Activities Committee, his career vanished. He continued to write screenplays but only under assumed names. It took 21 years before he was permitted to direct another film. Garfield suffered perhaps a sadder fate. He came from a poor, working class background and had always been a strong supporter of the working man. He'd never been a Communist but he had supported liberal causes. Garfield was as politically naive as a deer who has a target tattooed on his side. He agreed to testify before HUAC but refused to offer any names of people the committee wanted to know were Communist sympathizers. He was unofficially blacklisted. He had become a major star in the Forties, but the job offers suddenly dried up. He made a couple of so-so movies, then tried to re-establish himself on Broadway. He was mystified and depressed at what was happening to him. He died of a heart attack in 1952 at 39.

The DVD transfer is just fine. There are no extras. November 17, 2006

To be a classic is at times disappointing

A strange film if there is one. We know what is going to happen from the very start, maybe because it is a classic and it has been imitated so often. There is no suspense. The film concentrates on the feelings of the main characters when confronted with the various developments that they had not been able to foresee, though they are entirely responsible for them. The business is half crime, half business, since it is illegal business. But it is business all the same, even if it is gambling. There are some risks in this business, particularly the finks that manage the police into hassling you, the gangwar that can explode at any time when one biggy tries to bring another biggy down, and of course your family that can find itself in the pit, unprotected and endangered. Add a little bit of mishy-mashy sentimentalese schmaltz and you have it. There is no depth though in the film itself, not even any real question on the morality of this street gambling. It is just one vision of how violent society can be when dealing with money and that most of the time the people who are hassled and victimized, not to mention those who are the dead victims, are mostly the little ones because the big ones try to remain civilized and proper, though at times the order can be changed. Then one million dollars will not be won on that day but one quarter of a million is not bad at all, after all.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne
June 28, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...