Force of Evil
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.33 You Save: $7.65 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.49 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Force of Evil
Movie Review: Great Noir
Summary: 4 Stars
I was pleasantly surprised to discover "Force of Evil" is a top-shelf film transfer. It has been properly restored, even surpassing John Garfield's companion film "Body and Soul" -- which was and is considered more marketable. "Force of Evil" casts Garfield as a corrupt lawyer who faces a conscience crisis over illegal lottery operations in a dispute with his older brother (Thomas Gomez). There's an irony in the fact that the film foreshadowed the current climate of government-sponsored lotteries, with their concomitant corruption of societal values. And "Force of Evil" was released in 1948.
- Al Hooper, Edmonds, WA
Movie Review: Force of Polonsky
Summary: 3 Stars
Watching this, I remembered this was one of the films that really made an impact on me as a kid. The anti-greed statement, coupled with some wonderful George Barnes cinematography (REBECCA (1940), JANE EYRE (1943)) was a very potent combination for me. Coupled with a great performance by John Garfield and an outstanding one from Thomas Gomez, this film should still have been superb. But I did not find it so this time around.
The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, Beatrice Pearson's character Doris Lowry was, in my opinion, awful. This was Pearson's debut, and she only made one more film before retiring. I give her the benefit of the doubt though; the problem with her character had to do (at least partially) with the dialogue she was given.
Apparently, writer/director Abraham Polonsky thought film was a great medium for Communist propaganda. I don't disagree with him; film is a great propagandistic medium. The difficulty lay in Polonsky's determination to give Garfield and Pearson's characters tons of propagandistic dialogue, where in many cases, a simple facial expression would have been far more poignant and apropos.
The result, as I saw it this time around, was a mix of splendid visuals and performances, weighed down by a didactic approach. I think many people understand the mechanisms of greed; the corrupting influence of power. What Polonsky may not have understood is the capitalistic system was chosen and implemented in America through choice, and not simply arrived at through ignorance.
Movie Review: Give This Movie a Chance
Summary: 3 Stars
Much has been made of this movie's anti-Capitalist stance during the era of McCarthyism. I will not debate this here. This movie is a fantastic depiction of a man's greed causing others to suffer. Played expertly by John Garfield (Gentleman's Agreement, The Postman Always Rings Twice), Joe Morse is a crooked attorney managing a numbers racket for his boss. When they decide to monopolize the numbers game in town, Joe's brother, who manages one of the numbers collection houses gets caught up in the fiasco. Double-crossing ensues as Joe tries to do right by his brother.
Though this movie is mostly notorious for it's politic statement, it is also a good, quick, fast-paced noir with an overtone of Cain and Abel.
Movie Review: No Force Here !
Summary: 3 Stars
Force Of Evil just doesn't measure up to its press clippings. The convuluted plot lacks action and the acting of Garfield is strictly wooden. He produces no empathy for the character and can spark no chemistry with his female lead. Marie Windsor is used as a throw in and completely wasted here. Garfield delivers every line as if he's invoking some speech for the ages and the dialogue is just plain stupid. As Film Noir, it is neither good noir nor a good film and lacks the necessary force to make the grade. Overall, I will be kind and give it a C-.Movie Review: Down I went, down and down, down to the bottom of the world...
Summary: 2 Stars
...down and down... and down
...down...
...down.
Wait, who was I listening to? And was someone else listening? Was I listening to the telephone? Or was the telephone also listening?
I feel it here... and here... and sometimes here... and here too... and over here...
The rest of you might fall for this poetry of the streets stuff, but not me. I got an ear, see, and it's telling me to stop listening.
The direction, cinematography, and acting are fine. Even the sound it good. But the dialog is just plain loopy -- and not fun loopy (like Janet Leigh's railway speech in Manchurian Candidate).
This is the first time I ever wished a movie had been dubbed
into Italian.
I don't speak Italian.