The Enforcer

Rating:
Summary: Bogart at his best.
Review: Stark sets, simple dialogue and a straight-forward plot help Bogart dominate this crime film. Every gesture, from his face to his hands, and the way he walks, and every word he says, makes an even bigger impression against this minimalistic backdrop.

The sets at the start are immensely black with long shadows in the dead of night. But as the film progresses and light is let in, through city and through country, things open up. It's a gritty world of immigrants and the unfortunate fear of people with names like Mendoza and Olga.

The character actors do memorable things with their lines and there is a more than effective use of flashbacks in the plot.

The music of a Romantic European orchestra, all heavy with strings and blaring brass, once again adds to a Bogart movie.

This may all seem rather tame and simple-minded to viewers raised on more recent crime films. But I find these old black-and-white pictures by Bogie and Cagney to be perfect in their own way.

Their "unrealistic realism" is less cluttered, more like art, but not pretentiously so. And they show an understanding of human nature, especially violence and the allure of the gun, which later films lack.

More than anything, this film has the greatest screen presence of them all, the dominating force that was Humphrey Bogart.

Rating:
Summary: A Huge Bogart Fan...couldn't watch the whole thing.
Review: The plot drags. Bogart is magnetic, but seems bored, and the film tries to milk his presence instead of working the plotline or magnifying the other characters.

I actually turned it off, and I love to watch Bogart films.

Don't bother, unless you have to watch them all.

Rating:
Summary: A Huge Bogart Fan...couldn't watch the whole thing.
Review: The plot drags. Bogart is magnetic, but seems bored, and the film tries to milk his presence instead of working the plotline or magnifying the other characters.

I actually turned it off, and I love to watch Bogart films.

Don't bother, unless you have to watch them all.

Rating:
Summary: Good crime thriller
Review: This is a decent thriller circa 1950 with Bogart in the role of DA for the jurisdiction. Well acted with a decent script it delivers. With language such as "hit" and "contract" now commonplace in the action/thriller genre it's a little odd to hear them used as if they were new term (and they were then).

The story centers around the breaking of a crime syndicate whose work consists of murder for hire. Much of it is told in flashback with few flagging moments. This isn't Bogart's best, but you won't be disappointed. This is a water-down version of a real life event based in the mid-40's in NY City. Another film, Murder, Inc with Peter Falk is a grittier tale of the same incident.

Look for Zero Mostel in a supporting role and for the work of Raoul Walsh who has several uncredited directing scenes.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing crime story
Review: This obviously is not Bogart's most famous or memorable film, but it is an entertaining film noir that holds your interest from start to finish. They don't make 'em like this no more. The plot involves Bogart as a D.A., whose star witness in bringing the head of a murder racket to justice dies before the trial. In a lengthy flashback, Bogart retraces the case from the beginning, looking for some bit of testimony that might help him nail the killer before he goes scot free. Bogart is good as his usual tough-guy self, and it's fun to watch the erie black-and-white cinematography. While it's nothing to write home about, it is a good cheap thriller, much better than many of the big-budget ones that have come out since then.