Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for John Garfield's Force Of Evil.
DVD Review
Force Of Evil, starring John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor, MGM, 1948
… and they went east of Eden. Yah, the fall was tough, tough all the way around, no question. Especially for Cain and Abel who duked it out, no holds barred, for bragging rights about who was who in the new world order. That premise is the mist of time myth behind the film under review John Garfield’s classic film noir Force Of Evil. Here’s the skinny on this version of that old-time story and you can figure out who did right, who tried to do right ,and who got it completely wrong in this wicked old world.
Like I said things since the fall have been kind of tough, tough for most people, most people including a guy named Joe (played by Mister Garfield). Joe, like a fair number of guys was from hunger, 1930s Great Depression hunger, 1930s New York City hunger which might have been the worst kind, especially with the parents gone and an older brother taking care of you. A good, or trying to be good, older brother, Leo (played by Thomas Gomez), who denied his own worth and put Joe through law school which resulted in a big time job with a cushy law office on Wall Street for his wise guy younger brother . But see guys from hunger, unlike the Mayfair swells with the silver spoons who only scratch a little , are always scratching like crazy to get a little more ahead of that next guy. So Joe took the fall, took the fall as the legal eagle front guy for a New York City numbers crime syndicate. And as with all such syndicates economy of scale is important (in short, all the dough from their patch of earth in one pot, theirs) so Joe and his Mister work out a scheme to corner the then fairly democratic, if illegal, small time numbers market.
The problem is that old Leo is knee deep in the small time numbers racket and if he doesn’t play ball he will take a fall as the organization flexes it muscle, a fatal fall maybe. Joe tries to reason Leo to become an organization man, and he finally succumbs. Unfortunately, although there is a tendency for all capitalist enterprises to become monopolies, there is still competition out there from another syndicate who wants in on the lucrative numbers dream hit the big one market. And Leo is, in the end, the pigeon, the fall guy of fall guys. He wind up dead, very dead, under a bridge (come on you know what bridge) in the East River. That sparks a revival or moral courage in Joe who realizes that he, one way or the other, is responsible for Leo’s death. Of course a dame, a from hunger dame, Doris (played by Beatrice Pearson), a dame who he had big eyes for, who knows, knows almost Catholic good girl institutively that you can’t succumb to evil without becoming evil helps him along in his moral recovery. Still it was close thing, and a handy revolver and some cute tricks helped out. Like I say working your life out here east of Eden is a tough dollar, a tough dollar indeed.
DVD Review
Force Of Evil, starring John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor, MGM, 1948
… and they went east of Eden. Yah, the fall was tough, tough all the way around, no question. Especially for Cain and Abel who duked it out, no holds barred, for bragging rights about who was who in the new world order. That premise is the mist of time myth behind the film under review John Garfield’s classic film noir Force Of Evil. Here’s the skinny on this version of that old-time story and you can figure out who did right, who tried to do right ,and who got it completely wrong in this wicked old world.
Like I said things since the fall have been kind of tough, tough for most people, most people including a guy named Joe (played by Mister Garfield). Joe, like a fair number of guys was from hunger, 1930s Great Depression hunger, 1930s New York City hunger which might have been the worst kind, especially with the parents gone and an older brother taking care of you. A good, or trying to be good, older brother, Leo (played by Thomas Gomez), who denied his own worth and put Joe through law school which resulted in a big time job with a cushy law office on Wall Street for his wise guy younger brother . But see guys from hunger, unlike the Mayfair swells with the silver spoons who only scratch a little , are always scratching like crazy to get a little more ahead of that next guy. So Joe took the fall, took the fall as the legal eagle front guy for a New York City numbers crime syndicate. And as with all such syndicates economy of scale is important (in short, all the dough from their patch of earth in one pot, theirs) so Joe and his Mister work out a scheme to corner the then fairly democratic, if illegal, small time numbers market.
The problem is that old Leo is knee deep in the small time numbers racket and if he doesn’t play ball he will take a fall as the organization flexes it muscle, a fatal fall maybe. Joe tries to reason Leo to become an organization man, and he finally succumbs. Unfortunately, although there is a tendency for all capitalist enterprises to become monopolies, there is still competition out there from another syndicate who wants in on the lucrative numbers dream hit the big one market. And Leo is, in the end, the pigeon, the fall guy of fall guys. He wind up dead, very dead, under a bridge (come on you know what bridge) in the East River. That sparks a revival or moral courage in Joe who realizes that he, one way or the other, is responsible for Leo’s death. Of course a dame, a from hunger dame, Doris (played by Beatrice Pearson), a dame who he had big eyes for, who knows, knows almost Catholic good girl institutively that you can’t succumb to evil without becoming evil helps him along in his moral recovery. Still it was close thing, and a handy revolver and some cute tricks helped out. Like I say working your life out here east of Eden is a tough dollar, a tough dollar indeed.
