Fresh
For all its unpleasant nature, it must be said that this film is a dynamic crime-and-punishment drama, brilliantly and broadly realized.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Force of Evil
Sensational Story Of a Numbers King Whose Number Was Up!
1950 · 1h 19m · Approved
Crime, Drama
Directed by
Abraham Polonsky
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Force of Evil
Overview
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.
Director and cast
- Abraham Polonsky Director
- John Garfield as Joe Morse
- Thomas Gomez as Leo Morse
- Marie Windsor as Edna Tucker
- Howland Chamberlain as Freddie Bauer (as Howland Chamberlin)
- Roy Roberts as Ben Tucker
- Paul Fix as Bill Ficco
- Barry Kelley as Det. Egan
- Stanley Prager as Wally
- Paul McVey Cast
- Beatrice Pearson Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
100%
Tomatometer
Fresh
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.
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
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