Force of
Evil, written by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert, based on the novel by the
latter and directed by the former
10 out of
10
This splendorous
motion picture is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made
list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/8
- and it is indeed one of the best one can see and although it dates from 1948,
it seems to have echoes, a disturbing message and similarities in the present
where America looks like regressing, for, if in the movie the Force of Evil
could be contained and is anyway limited to some villains of power, but a
relatively small one, in the present, Evil sits down in the White House…
Only yesterday,
the Orange Evil has pardoned a line of major crooks, people involved in and
sentenced for prison terms for corruption and associated felonies, players like
the former governor of Illinois, who upon the senate seat becoming available
with Barak Obama being sworn in as president – what glorious days those were
and what calamity we all have at this time – he initiated the selling of the
public office, and this after claiming in his (phony and irrelevant in the
Senate) impeachment trial that his only concern regarding the Ukraine was…fighting
corruption, as in the Godfather asking for some enemy to find peace…eternal
peace after being whacked, or having an ‘offer he could not refuse’.
John Garfield
is mesmerizing as lawyer Joe Morse the antihero of the feature, a lawyer who states
early on, in the first few scenes actually, that he wants to make a million
dollars – maybe upwards of one hundred million in the currency of this day –
and he would stop at nothing for that, forcing banks against the wall after the
numbers racket would be fixed to have the number on which everybody bets on the
4th of July, independence day in America, and causing small operations
to close…
One such
small betting shop is run by the brother of the villain lawyer, Leo Morse aka
formidable Thomas Gomez, who has an outfit that breaks the law, be it on a
small scale and when the sibling comes over with a very daring, apparently obscene
scheme through which those who will have placed bets would lose together with
so many others in the process, the ‘honest man’ rejects the proposition in the
most vehement terms and wants his brother to get out of his office and mentions
that in the past, the older brother seems to have made sacrifices for the
benefit of the lawyer and as gratitude he is now pushed into some abhorrent game
he does not want to be a part of…
However,
the manager of the illegal but small time operation has a protégée, Doris Lowry
aka wondrous Beatrice Pearson, that he wants to continue to have a security a
job, though the young woman is so distressed, disappointed when she hears what
the lawyer puts on the table that once he had left, she comes to say she
resigns, she is very thankful for the support the manager had offered and knows
how much this had meant to her, but it is evident that she is the Honest
character – if there is another one in this story, it is hard to find him or
her in perfect form, for Leo is just enough, but only for a ‘normal person’, he
does work outside the law mind you…
Joe Morse is
supposed to be a partner of a gangster of the Trump size, with more brains
though, in the sense that he is ruthless, has no loyalty – though he demands it
of the others – he is interested only in his profit and whatever comes against
his projects has to go (‘as in take her out’…the honest, brave, role model Ambassador
in the Ukraine that fought corruption and would not facilitate the vicious,
corrupt, loathsome games played by Trump and cronies) Ben Tucker, married to
Edna Tucker aka great Marie Windsor.
The latter
comes to warn Joe that he has his phone tapped – yes, even in the forties it
happened – and she is interested in him, or conquering, dominating this
courageous male, perhaps she just likes to play games outside the marriage with
the disreputable husband, but the fact is that the lawyer rejects her advances
in a manner that would have feminists scream in anger today…furthermore, the
rather macho, superior and sexist way he deals even with the woman he seems to
fall for, Doris, is more than inadequate, old school, conservative or quite
fundamentalist and medieval, since he is quite aggressive, more than impolite
when he throws his hat at her, manhandles her and places her on some furniture
in the hall of the small betting place of the father.
Doris Lowry
is the Ultimate Saint in that she not only takes all this male chauvinism in
her stride, objecting here and there, but ultimately showing a motherly concern
for the man that plays so much outside the law, endangers so many, starting
with his brother and is flagrantly pushing his corrupt scheme with the attitude
of a Trump, claiming ‘it was a perfect call’ when everyone – who has an IQ
above 40 and some EQ to speak of - could
see it was extortion, bribery and as monstrous as possible…
The gangsters
involved in the big game have all the Force of Evil – again, just like the most
powerful man on the planet, who is alas also one of the dumbest, immoral,
egoistic, narcissistic, schizophrenic, idiotic and most pathological liars we
can mind – and people get killed, without mentioning any names let us just say
that this is not the Hollywood feel good fare – though not as violent as the
majestic Parasite, winner for the first time as a foreign language film of the
Best Motion Picture Academy Award for this year -
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