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Good movie but grossly overrated

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.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Dear Martin Scorsese, I decided to watch Force of Evil after you spoke about it on the On the Waterfront DVD. What impressed me the most about the film were its visuals. The first shot of the enormous buildings of Wallstreet pans to the tiny people walking on the road, almost inconsequential like ants. This theme is emphasized by repeating the same visual later in the film. After John Garfield walks out of his boss' office with stolen money, there are two beautiful long shots where the gigantic buildings tower like monsters over Garfield's tiny frame. There is some great film noir cinematography just before this scene as a single key light is used to show a slightly open door. The light shines on parts of John Garfield's face as he is about to spy on his boss. The film is a bleak tale of corruption where a big betting racket company (involved in the numbers game) tries to consolidate its position by forcefully acquiring all the smaller companies. This puts two brothers in conflict. It is a world where nobody is really honest. Everyone from the boss to the janitor is corrupt at some level or the other. And what is worse. The powers that be will not let anyone leave. The dialogs which include a first person narration by Garfield's character are almost poetic as different characters lament about the state of their lives. Frankly, I can't say I cared too much for the film apart from its visuals. The plot was needlessly complicated. And apart from John Garfield, most of the other actors seemed to be quite unremarkable. None of the faces really stood out for me. I can understand how this film might have inspired the relationship between the brothers in The Raging Bull, Martin. Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

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.

If Dutch Schultz was not the top Jewish racketeer of the 1930's he certainly was the most infamous. A sort of John Gotti of his day, "the Dutchman" loved the limelight and portrayed himself as a public benefactor instead of the sadistic skinflint he really was.Yet with all his eccentricities, Schultz was the first to see that the dimes and nickels poor people bet on the Numbers could add up to millions a year if properly organized. When several of the Harlem Numbers bankers couldn't pay off the winners and turned to Schultz for a bailout, Schultz provided the financing but took over the banks, and most of the profits, wisely leaving the street-level organizations with their controllers and runners intact, just as in the movie.And just as in the movie, Schultz employed an accountant, one Otto Berman, said to be a mathematical genius, to fix the winning Number by placing a bet at the racetrack just as betting closed so as to throw the "handle" off a heavily bet number.In 1943, long after Schultz had been killed in a mob rubout, sports writer and war correspondent Ira Wolfert wrote a novel loosely based on the crime career of Dutch Schultz. Wolfert also collaborated on the screenplay of "Force of Evil" which was based on a part of that book. Wolfert undoubtedly is responsible for the strikingly clever tone of the narration and much of the dialog's eloquent yet realistic style."Are you telling me, a corporation lawyer, that you're running a legitimate business here?" demands the protagonist of his numbers banker brother, in exasperation at his stubborn refusal to accept a mob takeover.This picture is 63 years old. An issue arises early on of remarkable relevance today: how close a mob lawyer can get to his clients before the law treats him not as legal counsel but as a participant in the criminal enterprise. "Lawyers are nor protected from the law," as one character succinctly puts it.When attorney Bruce Cutler was disqualified from representing John Gotti on just those grounds, Gotti's lucky charm deserted him and the former "Teflon Don" died in a Federal prison.John Garfield was a fast talker and he never lost nor tried to hide his Lower East Side accent. Yet because he had stage experience every word of every line is understood. He did not mumble or swallow his words--so different from some of the so-called movie stars of today. Accordingly the former slum kid and inmate in reform school John Garfield is believable in perhaps the only role of his short film career where he wears a finely tailored suit, compete with vest and watch chain in the style of the time.

I had no idea of the plot line for this film, and I didn't understand much of what was happening when I watched, but being in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I wasn't going to give up. The story is about lawyers getting involved in number rackets, and the protagonist, lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) crosses the ethical line with gangster client Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts). They are scheming to shut down all illegal banks in New York, and buy some up, Joe wants to do something good for his older brother Leo (Thomas Gomez) and force him out of the racket to work with the big boys. But Leo is happy in his small business, his employees are like family, and his secretary Doris Lowry (Beatrice Pearson) like a daughter, he doesn't want anything to do with Joe's scheme or the gangsters. Okay, I'll be honest, I don't think I payed enough attention to know all this. Also starring Howland Chamberlain as Freddie Bauer, Marie Windsor as Edna Tucker, Paul McVey as Hobe Wheelock, Tim Ryan as Johnson, Paul Fix as Bill Ficco, Jack Overman as Juice and Barbara Woodell as Mary - Joe's Secretary. The performances are very good, but I can see what the critics mean when they say that this film might not to everyone's taste, so even though I didn't get it, it is still an alright film noir. Good!