Synopsis
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
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Cast
- John GarfieldJoe Morse
- Thomas GomezLeo Morse
- Marie WindsorEdna Tucker
- Howland ChamberlainFreddie Bauer
- Roy RobertsBen Tucker
- Paul FixBill Ficco
- Stanley PragerWally
- Barry KelleyDetective Egan
- Paul McVeyHobe Wheelock
- Beatrice PearsonDoris Lowry
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
A highly stylized tale. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
At its best, Force achieves a style at once brutal and poetic, documentarian and noir. - 100
Empire
A shining example of everything Hollywood falling into place, and a masterpiece of cinema. - 100
Chicago Reader
A poetic, terse, beautifully exact, and highly personal re-creation of the American underworld, with an unpunctuated Joycean screenplay by Polonsky that is perhaps unique in the American cinema. This is film noir at its best. - 100
USA Today
Pearson's scenes with Garfield are among the most supercharged ever. [28 May 2004, p.6E] - 90
Time Out
One of the key films of the '40s. - 80
The New York Times
A dynamic crime-and-punishment drama, brilliantly and broadly realized. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Force of Evil is a more thoughtful kind of film noir than we are used to but still employs the traditional black-and-white contrasts and shadows.
