Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 31 January 1949 by Roberts Productions, Inc. A joint presentation of the Enterprise Studios and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Released through M-G-M. New York opening at Loew's State on 25 December 1948. U.S. release: December 1948. U.K. release: 4 July 1949. Australian release: not recorded. 7,065 feet. 78 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Joe Morse, lawyer for Ben Tucker's numbers syndicate, has helped arrange for a fixed lottery on July 4, the day when superstitious bettors will always bet on 776. That number has been set to win, which will wipe out the small independent numbers banks and allow Tucker to take over. However, Joe's older brother, Leo, runs one of these small banks, and Joe fears that the strain will kill Leo, who has a weak heart. NOTES: First film directed by Abraham Polonsky, one of the most famous of Hollywood's blacklisted writers. It was 20 years before he was allowed to direct another film: "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here".COMMENT: Film noir was never flavor-of-the-month at M-G-M. In Australia, for example, the distributor didn't even bother to hold a trade or media screening, let alone notify the trade papers of a release date. "Force of Evil" is of course a gem, a little masterpiece of film noir, with a powerful performance by Garfield and strong support by Thomas Gomez — probably his best performance ever — and Roy Roberts and Marie Windsor. Newcomer Beatrice Pearson is suitably colorless — she made only one more film, Lost Boundaries (1949) — and there's an appropriately seedy roster of character players. Abetted by George Barnes' atmospheric lighting and Richard Day's gritty sets, Polonsky's involving direction drives the hero's predicament home with palm-sweating force. Garfield is ideally cast to engage audience sympathy. The actor's natural charisma combines with Polonsky's tight direction to give a sense of participation that's almost overwhelming.OTHER VIEWS: This film is a dynamic crime-and-punishment drama, brilliantly and broadly realized ... A sizzling piece of work. (Bosley Crowther in The New York Times).

gavin6942 An unethical lawyer, with an older brother he wants to help, becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.The plot which unfolds is a terse, melodramatic thriller notable for realist location photography, almost poetic dialogue and frequent biblical allusions (Cain and Abel, Judas's betrayal, stigmata).What I really liked about this film is how it portrays the numbers racket. Whoever wrote this clearly knew what he was talking about. As someone who has studied the Mafia and its activities, I have a pretty good idea of how the numbers business works and how it can (or cannot) be rigged. These concerns are addressed in a very knowledgeable way.

Spikeopath Force of Evil is directed by Abraham Polonsky, who also adapts the screenplay from the Ira Wolfert novel Tucker's People. It stars John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor, Howard Chamberlain and Roy Roberts. Music is by David Raksin and cinematography by George Barnes. Plot finds Garfield as lawyer Joe Morse, who works for powerful gangster Ben Tucker (Roberts). Tucker has a plan to control all of the numbers rackets in New York, something that with the fix on the numbers up and coming for the 4th July, will see all of the smaller number rackets go bust. This is a problem for Morse because his big brother Leo (Gomez), is one such operator, an honest good guy who did everything he could to ensure that Joe had a proper start in life. It has come to be regarded as an influential and important movie in the film noir pantheon. Big critics, big film makers and film noir aficionados, all have queued up to salute Polonsky's film. If it's worthy of such elegant praise will always be debatable, but film does have a uniqueness about it, using stylised dialogue passages and in opening up a corrupt and socially bankrupt can of worms for the cinema loving world, Polonsky has crafted a thematically potent 1940's crime picture. The exchanges between Garfield and love interest Pearson, have an almost poetic flow to them, this in a film that for most of its running time shows that badness can not be beaten, or at best that it can't be railed against or broken away from so easily. While the biblical tones, both allusions and allegorically speaking, also give the picture some added power. Though mostly talky in the main, it does burst into shocking violence for its final quarter, with a finale that contains distress segueing into the possibility of spiritual regeneration…..or maybe that, too, will prove futile? Added to the biting narrative are great cast performances and evocative music scoring, and with skilled location photography adding authenticity, it's not hard to see why it has come to be so revered. Not as bleak as the title suggests, and veering a bit close to being too arty for its own good sometimes, but still a fine experience and it rewards more on further viewings. 8/10

JohnWelles "Force of Evil" (1948), directed by Abraham Polonsky, stars John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts, Beatrice Pearson and Marie Windsor. A tough, bleak film noir shot through with gutter poetry, this is a film that has clawed its way to its rightful position as one of the very best gangster films ever made, with Martin Scorsese acknowledging the influence it has exerted on him and his films.The screenplay is by Polonsky and Ira Wolfert, based on the latter's novel, "Tucker's People". The script is sharp as a hoodlum's knife, and the narration spoken by Garfield is written as though it were blank verse and the dialogue is very highly stylized which gives the film the feeling of a Shakespeare play. Radical stuff even today, the tale of near-Biblical proportions of the betrayal between brothers is a small masterpiece of amorality, guilt and finally a glimmer of redemption.John Garfield plays the lawyer of gangster Ben Tucker (Roberts) who seeks to consolidate and control the numbers racket in New York. However, Garfield's older brother, Tomas Gomez seeks to stay as a small time operator of the illegal lottery, thus causing friction between Garfield and his boss.With frequent allusions to the tale of Cain and Abel and a near Judas-like betrayal, Polonsky's direction is nothing short of beautiful, as is the photography by George Barnes. A scene in a coffee shop late at night, full of brooding and dread is an example of pure cinema. It is one of our greatest losses then, that Polonsky was blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy's House of Un-American Activities Committee and prevented from directing for over two decades. Acting, direction and photography seamlessly intertwine here to form one of the very great films of the forties.