Movie Review: Force of Evil (1948)

When Force of Evil was made in 1948, its producers thought that they had
a neat idea in having the screenplay written with as much blank verse as
possible. Instead, what it did was turn off moviegoers. On top of that, the
acting talent generally engaged in fast talk further alienating the audience.
However, given how poorly thought out the plot was, the audience was not missing much due to all the fast talk and blank verse.

Force of Evil was based on the crime novel Tucker’s People by Ira Wolfert who also wrote the screenplay. It was Abraham Polonsky’s directorial debut. Polonsky aimed for a stylish black and white flick, but the results
fell short of that goal.

Force of Evil is what’s called “film noir” even though it fits but few
of the conventions that film noir movies are supposed to have. This movie was about the numbers racket that was considered by the law back in 1948 to be a particularly egregious racket. Nowadays it is known as the state lottery. Needless to say, this is a fact that would complicate any attempt to remake this movie for modern audiences. Perhaps this is why nobody has ever tried remaking it.

The visual compositions are exceptionally well done and add excitement to the movie. This is especially true of the scene in which Frederick “Freddie” Bauer (Howland Chamberlain) is murdered. Unfortunately, most of the rest
of Force of Evil did not rise to this level.

Fundamentally, the main problem with Force of Evil is the poor production values. This was not the result of a low budget, since it had a decent budget by Hollywood standards, and there are many movies from the late 1940’s that had lower budgets but had better production values. The poor production values helped give the movie a cheap look and feel, making it harder to enjoy watching it.

Basically, Force of Evil is an interesting film. While its far from being one of the worst movies available on DVD, it is still below average. It had an interesting plot and an outstanding lead actor in John Garfield. However, except for Marie Windsor, the other actors failed to provide creditable performances. The decision to do the screenplay in blank verse failed to make the grade and Polonsky’s rookie effort as director did not help. Having said all that, Force of Evil is still a lot better than much of what’s out there and if you like crime movies, it is worth trying it out.