Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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).

ma-cortes An unethical and cynical lawyer called Joe Morse (John Garfield) , with an older brother he wants to help , becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket . But his elder brother Leo (Thomas Gomez) is one of these small-time operators who wishes to stay that way , opting not to deal with the mobsters (Roy Roberts , Paul Fix) who control the big-time . His employees are like family to him as his secretary, Doris Lowry (Chamberlain) , is like a daughter , then Joe falls in love for her . As the ambitious attorney attempts to save his brother from the mob boss's takeover of the numbers operation . The upright , though criminal brother refuses the help of the amoral advocate at law and he is ultimately forced to confront his conscience . This enjoyable film contains emotion , thrills , suspense , charming intrigue about corruption , and a lot of elements of Noir cinema . Main actor and screenwriter/director were pursued by American government during ominous period of Mccarthismo. Thought-provoking writing credits , written by Polonsky ; being based on a novel novel "Tucker's People¨ by Ira Wolfert . Very good and sizzling acting by John Garfield as a corrupt lawyer . Garfield had a sad as well fruitful life , as he signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield . Won enormous praise for his role of the cynical Mickey Borden in ¨Four Daughters¨ (1938). Appeared in similar roles throughout his career despite his efforts to play varied parts , being his best film : ¨Body and soul¨ . He played in adventure movie as ¨The sea Wolf¨ , historical as ¨Juarez¨ , drama as ¨Tortilla flat¨, a cameo in ¨Jigsaw¨ and the noir classic ¨The postman always rings twice¨. Active in liberal political and social causes, he found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife, he succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend at 39. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino. Excellent support cast gives magnificent acting such as Thomas Gomez as Leo Morse , Marie Windsor as Edna Tucker , Roy Roberts as Ben Tucker, Paul Fix as Bill Ficco and introducing the attractive Howland Chamberlain . Atmospheric and appropriate cinematography in black and white by George Barnes who along with James Wong Howe , John Alton and Nicolas Musuraka are the main cameramen of Noir genre . In order to show cinematographer George Barnes how he wanted the film to look, Abraham Polonsky gave him a book of Edward Hopper's Third Avenue paintings . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by the David Raskin (Laura) . Adequate photography in black and white filled with lights and shades , portentous interpretations and dark as well as twisted intrigue have made this a film nor classic . The motion picture was well directed by Abraham Polonsky and it was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1994 . Director Polonski was removed from the credits for a time after release, due to the blacklisting of supposed Communist sympathizers at the time . Polonsky was named as a member of the Communist Party by Hollywood 10 member Edward Dmytryk in Dmytryk's 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee , when the blacklisted director "named names" to revive his Hollywood career and effect a return from exile in Europe . After being named by former fellow O.S.S. member Sterling Hayden, Polonsky himself was arraigned before HUAC in 1951 . He was blacklisted and went into exile . As director and screenwriter , Polonsky was an "auteur" of three of the great film Noirs made in the last century: Body and soul (1947) screenplay , directed by fellow CPUSA member Robert Rossen, who kept his career by "naming names" , Force of evil (1948) which he wrote and directed , and Odds against tomorrow (1959) which he wrote using a front . Blacklisted after his uncooperative appearance before HUAC in April 1951, Polonsky did not get a chance to direct another film until 1968, when he helmed the production of the revisionist Western Tell them Willie Boy is here (1969), which he turned into an indictment of genocide . It wasn't until 1968 that he was credited on a film, for the screenplay for Don Siegel's exegesis of police corruption, Madigan (1968). Polonsky has a short career and after the release of the well-reviewed "Willie Boy," he helmed his last failed picture , the more light-hearted Romance of a horse thief (1971).

JLRMovieReviews Is money good? Is greed good? Are they necessary? Are they evil? These and other questions aren't necessarily answered, as much as pondered in this tale of a lawyer hired by a numbers racket group and then being embroiled into their lifestyle and the inner schemes. In the beginning we see John Garfield as an amoral self-absorbed individual and his older brother, played by Thomas Gomez, as more of a moral, decent hard-working man, who still works in his own betting office, where people place their bets. Gomez brought Garfield up and sacrificed for him, and John appears to be ungrateful, now living like a king with no qualms about the money he earns and how he earns it. "Money's money, isn't it?" But, as this film noir progresses we are shown that things aren't all black and white, as a lottery ticket. We are allowed to see Garfield as human, with feelings and he is even given a love interest, who happens to find something to love about him. What seems like a dark example of a film noir really feels as a biblical-style tale of salvation for John Garfield's character, with the comparisons of brothers John and Thomas to Cain and Abel, and Jacob and Esau. Others may not see as deeply into it as I, but it is riveting and intense viewing, for all film noir buffs. The ending may perplex some, as it doesn't so much end as move to another chapter that's left to your imagination. But, as one of the more socially and culturally important film noirs ever made, Force of Evil is essential to all lovers of film. Entertaining, yes. But, maybe you can learn something, too.

mhantholz (FULL DISCLOSURE: My parents, Communist Party members, were blacklisted out of show biz in L.A. at this time. I'm 61: I was there and I lived through those years. The others theorize, I know. )That this film was a box office flop is not only predictable---it was inevitable. Noir as a style & theme with b.o. legs had a 3-year run, '45-'46-'47, the way horror films did '31-'32-'33. The film school professors have tried to blame forces of reactionary social repression---the Production Code in '33, HUAC in '48. These events were but tombstones for film cycles that had run out steam at the box office.In my time working in movie theaters (hardtop & drive-in) '60s-70s, I saw many cycles come and go, most in 3 years: *Spaghetti westerns *Kung Fu *Biker *Drugs as "cool" *Trucker/hot car/backwoods *Blaxploitation *Euro heist That's the way the cookie crumbles in the movie biz; audiences are fickle. No more complicated than that.It is emblematic of the delusional university apparatus that the BUSINESS aspect of film-making---THE DOMINANT element---is ignored in books on "film noir". After all, these characters not only have no private sector work history, they view business the same as FOE---*Capitalism is a racket*. That's not something Americans will pay to see, and MGM gave this film "the big build-up": I saw the '48 press-book.It is even more telling that that these professors, lefties all, only quote reviews and coverage in the generic press but NEVER EVER feature the "trades"--- publications catering to exhibitors such as Box office, MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR, MOTION PICTURE HERALD, etc. Coverage was from the theater operator's viewpoint---a world away from film school fantasists.These film school wackos only interview the creative types and NEVER the studio exec in charge of Exhibitor Relations---the man who reports to the top on b.o. performance. They NEVER interview the producers, as if these films somehow were made with money from Santa Claus. They never banked a box-office take or met a payroll or dealt with distributors---they never even ran a lemonade stand as kids.FOE was a flop because Americans of the post-WWII era took strong exception to those who believed to their last nerve that America would be better off as a Communist police state. Americans are funny that way: we got rid of one tyranny in 1776 and weren't about to lie down for another. FOE is a fine production defeated by its view of American business as a criminal conspiracy--- putting the JG character's law firm on Wall Street is too crude, typical lefty device. And the sickeningly sanctimonious Beatrice Pearson character is typical Group Theater/1930s---the "little people" waif, a type which disfigured drama right into the 1960s. Many actors sank themselves with this type (Salome Jens comes to mind), even many major stars tried it on: Natalie Wood, for instance.The blacklistees, their acolytes and the film-school nuts have tried to paint a picture of the blacklistees abrupt demise as the result of "hysteria". That they'd say this shows how clueless they are, and remain, about the country of their birth.There was NO "hysteria": it was a foregone conclusion among wide-awake grown-ups that communism=enslavement, a view verified, abundantly, by the historical record. But they weren't "hysterical" about it---they pulled the plug on the Left and moved on without a backward glance or second thought.And what was there to think about? The equation was communism=death just as nazism=death, and Americans had had it with these police state isms. The U.S.A. had the body count to point to erasing the Nazis and weren't up for a rerun fighting another ism. Which they did anyway in Korea.So yeah, the lefties got stepped on, hard, and kicked to the curb, right into the gutter. It's the blacklistees who were hysterical---they'd hung themselves on a meat hook, HUAC just provided the footstool.FOE's star John Garfield, the finest actor of his generation committed seppukku at his HUAC hearing saying he wouldn't say anything about his "friends". NOW HEAR THIS: Political extremists have NO friends, only accomplices and co- conspirators. And J.G. had been snitched off by his good "friends": HUAC knew everything already anyway.All apolitical people, like me(70% of any population) know this---Political extremists at BOTH ends of the political spectrum, right OR left, meet in the SAME PLACE: Secret police dungeons, barbed wire camps, mass graves. Only partisans of either ism see a difference, those of us outside the political nut ward see only bloody devastation. This was the future envisioned by the blacklistees---"friendship" had nothing to do with it.The blacklistees weren't believed because they simply weren't credible. They married a political philosophy that was nothing but lies and were caught out. They wanted it BOTH ways: to live the Hollywood high life while slandering the nation that made it possible. OF COURSE America reacted with revulsion and rejected them, harshly.That the blacklistees are romanticized by the film school apparatus merely shows the enduring resilience of the leftist lie.My parents were party members, knew Garfield as "Julie", and I grew up hearing them & their CP buddies spout the party line. I loved my mom & dad in life and more than ever since their death, in '83. I miss my parents terribly---every day. They gave me the internal resources to survive, endure and even triumph. And because I had the BEST mom & dad it baffled and infuriated me that they were so clueless, so lacking in self awareness when it came to the Party. They were true police state cheerleaders and I am their son.>>>TO BE CONTINUED under "Nobody Lives Forever", "Postman Always Rings Twice", "Fallen Sparrow", and "The John Garfield Story". Also posts in "Asphalt Jungle", "Nightmare Alley" deal with the blacklist, and films known as "noir".