The Enforcer

Plot synopsis:
In Marin County, two gas company men are lured by a scantily-clad woman (Jocelyn Jones) to a remote spot in Mill Valley and killed by Bobby Maxwell (DeVeren Bookwalter). Maxwell's gang, the People's Revolutionary Strike Force (PRSF), plans to use the gas men's uniforms and van as part of an ambitious series of crimes that will make them rich.
Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) and his partner Frank DiGiorgio (John Mitchum), after dealing with a chronic fainter, arrive at a liquor store where robbers have taken hostages. The robbers demand a car with a police radio; the inspector provides one by driving his squad car into the store and shooting the robbers.
His superior Captain McKay (Bradford Dillman) reprimands Callahan for "excessive use of force", injuring the hostages, and causing $14,379 of damage to the store, and temporarily transfers him out of the Homicide unit. While assigned to Personnel, Callahan participates in the interview process for promotions, and learns that affirmative action means that three of the new inspectors will be female including Kate Moore (Tyne Daly), despite her very limited field experience.
The PRSF uses the gas company van to steal M72 LAW rockets, Colt M16 rifles, a Taser and other weapons from a warehouse. In the course of the robbery, three people are killed: a security guard whom Maxwell kills for his keys; DiGiorgio, whom Maxwell stabs in the back after he stumbles in on the robbery after discovering the guard's body; and Miki, one of Maxwell's accomplices, is accidentally shot when DiGiorgio's gun goes off. Maxwell finishes her off as "dead weight" with DiGiorgio's weapon. To Callahan's distress, Moore is his new partner; she claims to understand the risk, noting that—besides DiGiorgio—two other partners of his have died. After watching an Army demonstration of the LAW rocket on a firing range, they visit the Hall of Justice to sit in on an autopsy on the security guard killed in the robbery. Shortly afterwards, a bomb explodes in the bathroom. Callahan and Moore chase down and capture the PRSF bomber, Henry Lee Caldwell, and meet "Big" Ed Mustapha (Albert Popwell), leader of a black militant group the bomber formerly belonged to.
Although Callahan makes a deal with Mustapha for information, McKay arrests the militants for the PRSF's crimes. Callahan angrily refuses to participate in a televised press conference in which the publicity-seeking mayor would commend him and Moore ("one of the first of her sex in the whole country") for solving the case, and McKay suspends him from duty. Moore supports Callahan and gains his respect.
The PRSF boldly kidnaps the mayor after a Giants game in a very orchestrated ambush. With Mustapha's help Callahan and Moore locate the gang at Alcatraz Island, where they battle the kidnappers. Moore frees the mayor but Maxwell kills her as she saves Callahan's life. He avenges Moore by killing Maxwell with a LAW rocket. The inspector is uninterested in the mayor's gratitude, returning to his partner's corpse as McKay and others arrive to agree to Maxwell's demands.

Tags: insanity, murder, flashback

Review:
Only the garishness of containing a super star and being directed, uncredited, by Raoul Walsh , lifts this film to 'A' status but in fact this is a 'B' picture all the way.There are plot holes aplenty, cars which are fifteen years out of date, an unusually high body count and police procedures which would give the ACLU, if not the Supreme Court, apoplexy.
The body of the film is D.A. Humphrey Bogart and cop Roy Roberts reviewing their notes for a case against a murder for hire racket.
Artistically his peak was probably THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRES in 1948, but his Oscar winning film, THE African QUEEN, was in 1951, and he still had IN A LONELY PLACE and THE CAINE MUTINY in his future.Here he returns to Walsh as his director, and leads a bunch of fellow character actors in a nice example of the thriller that is based on the error that undoes the evil criminal - an inverted detective story device that is best seen today in the television series of COLUMBO.
De Corsia is wonderful as the "Abe Reles" character, whose fear of Sloan/"Mendoza" leads to his death (historically, Reles probably was thrown out of the window of his hotel by policemen who were bribed to do so, although they tied a set of sheets together to make it look like Reles was killed in a stupid attempt at escaping).
Lambert is a forgotten character actor, who played many hoods in his films (he could, like De Corsia and Steele, look threatening very easily).
But Herman could be a cousin of "Canino", the creep who works for Eddie Geiger in THE BIG SLEEP, and who poisons a (for once) poignantly tragic Elisha Cook Jr. Steele was a good actor, but most people who don't recall his heyday as a cowboy star remember him only as the garrulous Sergeant Duffy in television's "F-TROOP" ("There I was at the Alamo with Davy Crockett...").The most interesting casting of all is Zero Mostel, as Babe, the hapless, fat thug who gets in over his head (but does survive, for all that).
At it's time it was very different to other films.The performances are all good, the group of hitmen in particular stand out in their portrayal of tough guys who turn to fear and mistrust when the law closes in.
De Corsia, Sloane, Mostel et al are the real stars and are very good in their hitmen guises.The film was based on the discovery and cases of the real "murder inc" in the 40's and is told in the crime story style that would become more used in the 1950's.
Although the star of the film in terms of first billed in The Enforcer is Humphrey Bogart, the film's main character is Ted DeCorsia in what is probably his best screen performance.Taking a lot of inspiration from Citizen Kane, District Attorney Humphrey Bogart and his two police investigators, Roy Roberts and King Donovan try and piece back together a case against Everette Sloane who has started a new racket, murder for profit.
The chief witness is Ted DeCorsia who after an attempt on his life, falls to his death while trying to escape from a window.After DeCorsia's demise the night before the trial was to commence, Bogart and Sloane start listening to hours of tape from several witnesses to see if they can salvage the case.
I can't see in real life how that could have happened.Still The Enforcer is a personal favorite of mine for Humphrey Bogart films and I think you'll like it too although when you see it you will see what Bogey did that almost blew the whole case..
Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has the chance for sending the criminal Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane) to the electric chair.
I'm surprised a Bogart film at the top of his career was handled by Windust, but at this time Bogart had been battling the Hollywood Communist lists and blacklists, and he got his independent Santana production company going, and I'm guessing that he was working against a lot of the Hollywood mainstream at this point (as was John Huston, who used Bogart in "African Queen" the next year).
While not on the same dynamic level as Walsh's own classic gangster/noir films including The Roaring Twenties' (1939), High Sierra' (1941) or White Heat' (1949), Murder Inc' is superior entertainment, featuring some great character actors and a characteristic Bogart performance.He plays Assistant DA Martin Ferguson, struggling to build a case against a syndicate of killers (based on a real life organisation and its chief architect Albert Anastasia, which killed an estimated 400).
Ultimately he is driven to confront Mendoza in his cell with photographs of his victims, triggering the final scenes.Still enjoyable today Murder Inc', deserves to be better known by Bogey's fans and noir enthusiasts alike.
This starts off powerfully, with a very interesting scene and some excellent film- noir photography, but after the witness dies, so does the movie in many respects.From that point on, it's just a bunch of flashbacks.
Film-noir-wise, despite the presence of superstar Humphrey Bogart along with guys like Zero Mostel, Everett Sloane and Ted de Corsia, it's average fare for the day.
Bogart is good as his usual tough-guy self, and is trying to prosecute the boss man of a Murder Incorporated type of crime organization but keeps running into road blocks with people getting killed.
The real life character that Rico appears based on, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, ended up dead in police custody, somehow falling from a fifth story window before testifying against Murder Inc. How convenient.This may not be the Warner Bros.
If the first 15 minutes amounts to paranoia run amok, the last amounts to suspense in spades as a cold-eyed killer stalks an unsuspecting girl along crowded city streets.What a great cast of character parts-- plug-ugly psycho Jack Lambert all wrapped up in ice and apparently loving it; Fatso Zero Mostel auditioning as an assassin but serving as a kick-me doorstop instead; and a menacing Bob Steele brandishing a revolver instead of his usual six-gun, along with such familiar yet unsung faces as police chief Roy Roberts and detective King Donovan who gets an unscheduled face wash and without a towel.
After years of chase , Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has an important case against Murder, Inc. whose boss results to be a gangster named Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane) .
The main star is backed by a host of fine support cast such as Zero Mostel , Ted de Corsia , Everett Sloane , Roy Roberts , Michael Tolan , King Donovan and the cowboy Bob Steele .
This helps the film to come off well, but to me it still seems like a B movie with an A list star and director."The Enforcer" is a crime noir, with Bogart as Martin Ferguson, a frustrated District Attorney who loses yet another witness against a crime boss, Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane).
Ferguson's witness (Ted de Corsia) is due to go into court the next day, but he panics and tries to leave via a window too many flights up.Ferguson stays up the night before the trial with Captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) going over the case incident by incident, trying to figure out if there is anybody else who can help him put this killer in prison.There are flashbacks within flashbacks here as different people tell a story about the organization.I liked the denouement of this movie.
I found it effective and also suspenseful.Bogart, as usual, is great, as the no-nonsense DA, and he has good support from Zero Mostel, Sloane, King Donovan, and Michael Tolan, among others.Good crime drama..
"If you're smart you can be a hero, if you're dumb you can be dead!" Joseph Rico (Ted De Corsia) tells D.A. Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) in this very dark, intense factual story of a Murder for Profit organization.
Despite Bogart's star billing he doesn't dominate the film & is not in every scene & his absence is not missed due to the top notch supporting cast led by Ted De Corsia, Zero Mostel, Bob Steele, Jack Lambert etc.Though we already know Rico is dead he is very much seen afterwards & dominates the film from the flashback scenes.
Eventually when the movie transports us back to the present situation we still hear Rico's voice from a tape recorder.Bogart's role as the D.A. Martin Ferguson is reminiscent of his earlier role in the 1937 film Marked Woman opposite Bette Davis as D.A. David Graham modeled after real life D.A. Thomas Dewey who convicted Lucky Luciano in 1935.
For once Bogart appeared in a gangster film as a crusader of justice & again in 1951 in The Enforcer.I really enjoy watching this movie but what I find disappointing is the abrupt, unexpected & inconclusive ending that leaves you up in the air.
Finally after lots of hard work, Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson has a good case against Murder Inc big wig, Albert Mendoza.
But while Mendoza is in jail, the man lined up to testify against him loses his nerve and falls to his death, thus leaving Ferguson little to no time to rebuild a case against the crime lord.The Enforcer is based upon the whistle blowing of one Abe Reles.
Who opened eyes up to an organised crime mob called Murder Inc. Fusing that period of history with the subsequent Kefauver Committee investigations that followed Reles' reveals, The Enforcer is a tough and gritty picture that many view as the key switch from Noir into the grizzled crime obsessed 1950s.
Starring Humphrey Bogart (Ferguson), Everett Sloane (Mendoza) and the excellent, and wonderfully named, Zero Mostel (Big Babe Lazich), it's also thought that Raoul Walsh had quite a hand in the final product.
Bogart plays what by now has become a familiar character of his, the crusading lawyer, this time as a DA trying to break a murder-for-hire ring.It does have its flaws, however.
Humphrey Bogart plays the Burton Turkus character, who was so successful in putting away many of the members of Murder Inc. and sending to the electric chair the only major mob boss ever to be executed, Louis (Lepke) Buchalter.
Everett Sloane is excellently cast as the brilliant, brutal Lepke like character, a small, slight, but terrifying man, who one policeman described as having the eyes of a doe.The movie is wonderful in revealing to audiences of the day the machinations of the mob.
We also see how the mob, now concerned about electronic surveillance has come up with code words like contract and hit to confuse law enforcement.Bogart's device of confronting the incarcerated Sloane with reminders of his victims almost backfires, but instead sets up the film's climax as it demonstrates the long reach possessed by crime chieftains even behind bars.
As others have noted it employs a CITIZEN KANE device - the hunt for a vital clue embedded in the past which may hopefully bring about closure and its nicely apt that Everett Sloane (as Mr. Big) appears in both films.The more extreme violence is always off-screen, no bad thing, but we do get a splendidly-prepared shoot-out at the end when the D.A. rescues his crucial witness (marvellously etched by Pat Joiner) from a stalking hit-man.
But the movie makes an unconscious point about the head of the gang - the slight Everett Sloane - whose very face drives Rico "over the edge." Sloane makes the most of his few minutes, as does Bob Steele, who came aboard at Bogart's suggestion, having impressed in "The Big Sleep."Several others here make notable impressions - Jack Lambert started a career of screen villainy as Tom Zaka, a psycho-killer long before Talking Heads ever sang about one.
This film has a great cast of super stars, Humphrey Bogart(Dist.Atty.Martin Ferguson)"The Caine Mutiny"'54 who wears a bow-tie and was in the prime of his acting career which ended in 1957.
He had great supporting actors namely: Zero Mostel (Big Babe Lazich) "Fiddler On The Roof"'64; Everett Sloane(Albert Mendoza) "Somebody Up There Likes Me" '56'; Jack Lambert (Tom Zaca) "Riverboat'59" TV Series '59-'61 who played gangster and hoodlum roles in Western's for many years.
If you look close enough, you will see Veteran actor Bob Steele (a great actor of the 30's and 40's mostly appeared in Western's)   If you like Bogart and good actors from the past, by all means view this film!.
This isn't your typical gangster film but the story is based on the real life case of a Murder, Inc. gang.District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Bogart) has spent the last four years of his life trying to bust a gang of hired killers who have left hundreds of bodies lying around.
We then get various flashbacks to those in the gang and the story, which lead Rico to agree to testify.The Enforcer is a throwback to the 1930's with pictures such as the Dick Tracy series but it has a blend of film noir, which makes it worth watching even though the end results aren't as great as one would hope.
This film was one of the last of its type and Bogart is as great as usual playing the tough as nails D.A. who'll stop at nothing to get the big case solved.
The tension then goes to the final seven hours before the court case when the D.A. must find a witness to put on the stand but this here doesn't work because the majority of the characters aren't too interesting and they certainly don't bring any extra life to the movie.
It's just too bad the rest of the stories weren't as interesting.Bogart is very good in the role, although this is the type of character he could play while sleeping.
That being said, and Bogart being Bogart, this is still a top-notch noir thriller, with some of the best character actors in the business (Ted DeCorsia, Roy Roberts, Jack Lambert, Bob Steele, Zero Mostel) filling out the cast, a dark, oppressive and somewhat claustrophobic tone, and some particularly--considering the time in which it was made--gruesome moments (the scene between sadistic hit-man Bob Steele and gang member Danny Dayton, when it slowly dawns on Dayton that *he* is the intended victim, will make your hair stand on end).
Bogart, who can play a good guy as well as a bad guy, is superb as an honest hard nosed assistant D.A. working with various bits and pieces of information so that enough evidence can be gathered to convict the head man of a murder for business organization.
A look at the supporting cast will tell you why.Bogey plays crusading DA Martin Ferguson who is trying to convict mob kingpin Everett Sloane of murder.
It was during these broadcasts that the general public first became aware of some of the jargon used by hired killers and "The Enforcer" is credited as being the first movie to feature the words "contract", "hit" and "fingerman" in this context.After a four year investigation into the activities of crime boss Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), Assistant D.A. Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has a witness who has agreed to testify that he saw Mendoza kill a man.
When the witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies suddenly as the result of an accident, Ferguson and Police Captain Frank Nelson (Roy Roberts) undertake a meticulous review of their investigation to date to try to find another piece of information which could lead to them being able to get Mendoza convicted.The case files confirm that the investigation started when a frantic young man called "Duke" Malloy (Lawrence Tolan) visited a police station and reported that he's been forced to kill his girlfriend.
The action is delivered with a good deal of pace and tension and despite the story's closeness to real events, the movie's style is always entertaining and not overly solemn in the way that some docu-noirs can be.The colourful collection of characters featured in "The Enforcer" are brought to life vividly by the excellent cast and Humphrey Bogart is especially good as a man who is extremely determined and powerfully focused on his task but is nevertheless also very controlled and methodical when necessary..
. which gave rise to one of the great lines of all gangster movies, "Can this be the end of Rico?" That's the question that assistant district attorney Ferguson's star witness, Joseph Rico, wails after Bogie lets him slip nine stories above the pavement.
From then on, all the movie is made of flashbacks which tell you (not always in chronological order) the whole police investigation that has been carried out to break up that crime organization.The keys: Actually this is not a Bogie's film, for he doesn't play an important part in the action: Most of the time, he just listens to what others do.
Bogie's character is Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson, who along with police pal Frank Nelson (Roy Roberts), unravels a murder for profit enterprise in a deftly told story with a clever twist that finally sinks the big fish behind it.Like the Charlie Chan films of an earlier era, I found that keeping a scorecard for the colorful cast of characters is helpful to keep track of the action.
One of the more interesting things for me in this 1950 film was it's explanation of the terms "contract" and "hit", obviously recent additions to the crime lexicon for it's day, though hardly unknown today.The movie offers a lot of clichéd lines that were probably fresh at the time, take Ferguson's command to the paranoid Rico (Ted De Corsia) the day before he's set to testify against mob boss Mendoza (Everett Sloane) - "He'll die, he's got to die, and you're going to kill him." Though Rico dies in a fall while trying to escape from testifying, we later see him in a flashback scene recounting how he was present at Mendoza's first "hit" of a café owner.