ma-cortes After years of chase , Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has an important case against Murder, Inc. whose boss results to be a gangster named Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane) . As the assistant district attorney goes after an organized band of murderers and to condemn Mendoza as well as put his gang behind bars . Meanwhile , Mendoza is in prison and his lieutenant Joseph Rico (Ted De Corsia) is going to testify . But Rico falls from a building to his death and Ferguson along with Capt. Frank Nelson (Roy Roberts) must work through the night going over everything to study the issue anew .Exciting and thrilling picture with a complex intrigue , nice character studio , suspense , a lot of killings and full of flashbacks . One of the most grueling of even Bogart's mobster movies all done in gripping realism and shot in semi-documentary style . Interesting and moving screenplay by Martin Rackin . The picture has a Noir treatment of the real-life ¨Murder Inc¨ case , being narrated by means of flashbacks . There are murders galore ; as grisly killings by : hanging , razor , knife , falling heights , point blank shot and by pick axe filmed in hypnotic realism . Faint-heart people of the 50s were impressed for killing galore , horrific scenes and strong images by that time . According to the New York Times' Feb. 16, 2014 article on films influenced by the Kefauver hearings, Sen. Estes Kefauver appeared in a prologue for this film . It's splendidly played by Humphrey Bogart ; he was in his best period of the early 50s when he starred classic movies such as ¨The Caine Mutiny¨, ¨Sabrina¨, ¨Beat the devil¨, ¨The African Queen¨, ¨Sirocco¨, ¨In a lonely place¨, ¨Chain lightning¨, ¨Knock on any door¨ and this ¨The enforcer¨. The main star is backed by a host of fine support cast such as Zero Mostel , Ted de Corsia , Everett Sloane , Roy Roberts , Michael Tolan , King Donovan and the cowboy Bob Steele . Evocative and adequate cinematography by Robert Burks , Hitchcock's usual . Appropriate as well as atmospheric musical score by David Buttolph adds impact to the action . The motion picture produced and distributed by Warner Bros. was compellingly directed by Bretaigne Windust . After several days of filming, director Bretaigne Windust fell seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Humphrey Bogart asked his old friend, director Raoul Walsh, to come in and shoot the picture until Windust recovered. Unfortunately, Windust was more seriously ill than most realized, and his recovery took several months, during which Walsh finished the film. However, Walsh refused to take screen credit for it, saying that the picture was Windust's big break and he wasn't going to take it away from him . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching . The film will appeal to Humphrey Bogart fans .

saturno3x1 This is a very good film. It got me thrilled from the very beginning. The story starts when the main witness on a murder trial falls to death accidentally just the night before the trial, and then the District Attorney begins to review all the case over, seeking some other conviction clue against the defendant. From then on, all the movie is made of flashbacks which tell you (not always in chronological order) the whole police investigation that has been carried out to break up that crime organization.The keys: Actually this is not a Bogie's film, for he doesn't play an important part in the action: Most of the time, he just listens to what others do. In fact, this is nobody's film, for the play is quite well distributed between the characters. And the director has been clever enough to give each one of the players quite enough a part to describe his/her character perfectly.The details: There are a lot of details in the action, on which I didn't realize the first 4 or 5 times I saw the movie. But after seeing it a dozen times (believe it or not), I enjoy every one of them. For example, try to understand why Ricco's hand was slipping when Ferguson tried to grab it. Or guess whatever happened to Vince. Or what is the thing "you can carry around in the hat", as Mendoza said. Or just ask yourself why Rico was such a good employer for his employees: paying without having them work, providing lawyers, taking care of their families...The moral: I even try to figure out if there is a moral conclusion laying under the plot. Maybe there is one, if one comes to analyze the murderers characters: All of them seem quite tough when they have a gun, but they break down when feeling threatened (even the impassive and cool Mendoza), revealing themselves as a bunch of cowards. And there is another important fact: In the end, NO ONE GOT TO ESCAPE. Up to eight of them end up violently killed, and the other five regret (or seem to) and agree to collaborate with the police.The goofs: Unfortunately there are plenty of goofs in the action: Olga Kirshen talks too much, same as Angela Vetto; Big Babe hides in the church, as if it were a safe place to hide from murderers; Angela assumes Teresa's personality in a way which is not credible; Rico knocks poor Whitlow's head over the washbasin without Ferguson nor Nelson hearing it, although they are in the room next door; The apparent lack of impeachments for disappearing people in all those years of murders... Still, that doesn't harm the plot that much.Although not quite realistic, the acting (Ted De Corsia at his best), the plot and the direction make a thrilling picture which worths a view... well, more than one view.

Spikeopath Finally after lots of hard work, Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson has a good case against Murder Inc big wig, Albert Mendoza. But while Mendoza is in jail, the man lined up to testify against him loses his nerve and falls to his death, thus leaving Ferguson little to no time to rebuild a case against the crime lord.The Enforcer is based upon the whistle blowing of one Abe Reles. Who opened eyes up to an organised crime mob called Murder Inc. Fusing that period of history with the subsequent Kefauver Committee investigations that followed Reles' reveals, The Enforcer is a tough and gritty picture that many view as the key switch from Noir into the grizzled crime obsessed 1950s. At the time of writing this I have yet to have it confirmed, but it's thought that this Bretaigne Windust directed picture is the first mainstream picture to deal with the complexities of organised crime? Certainly the dialogue is now common speak (courtesy of Martin Rackin (Riffraff 1947), but back in 1951 it surely would have raised eyebrows and intrigued the watching public.Excellently photographed in stark black and white by Robert Burks, who of course is well known to Hitchcock devotees, the picture positively seeps with an underworld vibe, perhaps even coming into the realms of being documentary in structure. Starring Humphrey Bogart (Ferguson), Everett Sloane (Mendoza) and the excellent, and wonderfully named, Zero Mostel (Big Babe Lazich), it's also thought that Raoul Walsh had quite a hand in the final product. This to my knowledge, is still unconfirmed, but when viewing the picture as a whole, it certainly boasts the feel of Walsh's better known pictures. Highly engrossing and a template movie of sorts, The Enforcer is definitely one to catch if at all possible. 7.5/10

Juha Hämäläinen In this tight and well made crime drama Bogart plays a district attorney with the same grip and conviction as he did earlier in numerous roles at the wrong side of the law. He duly demonstrates his usual witty tough guy image, but there is also much grace and warmth brought with age in his performance. This guy does not fool around. Everybody get just what their deserve and the job gets done, no matter what it takes. What makes these roles of Bogart so compelling is the way they project a certain strong image of the man without having to use much physical power over other people. Here he becomes once again an embodiment of a thinking man's tough guy. Notice in the final scene how he gives his orders and announcements from a music store, surrounded by saxophones, guitars and other instruments. It symbolically but clearly points to the ways he is capable of playing with people and circumstances and conduct the whole case towards the solution.There is no monkey business in the movie either. The crime is presented as a well organized and business-likely lead incorporation for paid murders with even own undertakers on the gang's payroll. It's like a Dick Tracy story made as realistically as possible. An interesting group of criminals is created by a great cast, a pack of believable personalities. The plot moves swiftly through the showing of clear methods of the law enforcement with parts of the case getting unraveled by several flashbacks during the interrogations.The style of photography successfully blends together almost documentary-like sharpness and traditional film noir aspects of heavy contrast and shadows. The darkness seems to hang above and around the criminals as well as the law men, the business being mutual in spite of the opposite sides. Moody and hard-boiled as ever the movie has no humor or romance and it generally avoids using the most obvious clichés of the classic crime movie genre.