Force of evil

John Garfield gives one of his most outstanding performances as the successful Wall Street lawyer Joe Morse who has made his considerable fortune out of petty corruption and looking after the interests of the gambling underworld. When big-time racketeer Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts) gets Joe to assist him in controlling the New York numbers game, Joe has to put the career and life of his own brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), in jeopardy. This forces Joe into having to decide between the seduction of big money and loyalty to his brother. From this minimalist film-noir plot, Polonsky has fashioned a dark fable about the American Dream. Notable also for being one of the first Hollywood films to use location street shots, the imposing skyscrapers and the depressing tenement slums of New York City add layers of visual meaning to the film, further drawing connections between good and evil, morality and criminality, poverty and wealth. Polonsky’s and Garfield’s careers were to be destroyed by the McCarthy political witch-hunts, particularly when they refused to betray their friends in the show-trials for the House of Un-American Activities. “Force of Evil”, and it’s critical examination of wealth and power in urban America was used as evidence of their Communist leanings. The film is based on the novel “Tucker’s People” by Ira Wolfert.