It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

An unethical lawyer, with an older brother he wants to help, becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.The plot which unfolds is a terse, melodramatic thriller notable for realist location photography, almost poetic dialogue and frequent biblical allusions (Cain and Abel, Judas's betrayal, stigmata).What I really liked about this film is how it portrays the numbers racket. Whoever wrote this clearly knew what he was talking about. As someone who has studied the Mafia and its activities, I have a pretty good idea of how the numbers business works and how it can (or cannot) be rigged. These concerns are addressed in a very knowledgeable way.

What is going on here? Something about numbers racket and collection points. Garfield wants to protect his brother who is a collector who thinks he is honest and for whatever reason hates his brother. Then we meet the obvious romantic interest (played by a first time nobody) with whom Garfield gets to impart snappy dialog while she whispers goody goody in response...of course she falls for him and they kiss and then they're all in court and she never wants to see or hear of or from him again except for two scenes later when she is sitting in a night club telling him to be good and go straight. Then there is the organizations enemy who wants in so Garfields brother ends up on the rocks at the rivers edge. Oh, and Marie Windsor is thrown in to wear slinky gowns and try's to get Garfield to smooch, but he ain't interested. Then a shoot out in darkened room and Garfield climbing down to see his brother on the rocks. He climbs down and down and down. I never knew the river(s) in N.Y. were so far down from the streets...at least two miles down....well, he see's his brother and then voices over how he's gonna help the cops make the world right and the movie ends. Obviously, I thought this was lousy. It is. Really clumsy direction with sloppy editing to boot. Extremely disappointing.

"Force of Evil" (1948), directed by Abraham Polonsky, stars John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts, Beatrice Pearson and Marie Windsor. A tough, bleak film noir shot through with gutter poetry, this is a film that has clawed its way to its rightful position as one of the very best gangster films ever made, with Martin Scorsese acknowledging the influence it has exerted on him and his films.The screenplay is by Polonsky and Ira Wolfert, based on the latter's novel, "Tucker's People". The script is sharp as a hoodlum's knife, and the narration spoken by Garfield is written as though it were blank verse and the dialogue is very highly stylized which gives the film the feeling of a Shakespeare play. Radical stuff even today, the tale of near-Biblical proportions of the betrayal between brothers is a small masterpiece of amorality, guilt and finally a glimmer of redemption.John Garfield plays the lawyer of gangster Ben Tucker (Roberts) who seeks to consolidate and control the numbers racket in New York. However, Garfield's older brother, Tomas Gomez seeks to stay as a small time operator of the illegal lottery, thus causing friction between Garfield and his boss.With frequent allusions to the tale of Cain and Abel and a near Judas-like betrayal, Polonsky's direction is nothing short of beautiful, as is the photography by George Barnes. A scene in a coffee shop late at night, full of brooding and dread is an example of pure cinema. It is one of our greatest losses then, that Polonsky was blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy's House of Un-American Activities Committee and prevented from directing for over two decades. Acting, direction and photography seamlessly intertwine here to form one of the very great films of the forties.

Is money good? Is greed good? Are they necessary? Are they evil? These and other questions aren't necessarily answered, as much as pondered in this tale of a lawyer hired by a numbers racket group and then being embroiled into their lifestyle and the inner schemes. In the beginning we see John Garfield as an amoral self-absorbed individual and his older brother, played by Thomas Gomez, as more of a moral, decent hard-working man, who still works in his own betting office, where people place their bets. Gomez brought Garfield up and sacrificed for him, and John appears to be ungrateful, now living like a king with no qualms about the money he earns and how he earns it. "Money's money, isn't it?" But, as this film noir progresses we are shown that things aren't all black and white, as a lottery ticket. We are allowed to see Garfield as human, with feelings and he is even given a love interest, who happens to find something to love about him. What seems like a dark example of a film noir really feels as a biblical-style tale of salvation for John Garfield's character, with the comparisons of brothers John and Thomas to Cain and Abel, and Jacob and Esau. Others may not see as deeply into it as I, but it is riveting and intense viewing, for all film noir buffs. The ending may perplex some, as it doesn't so much end as move to another chapter that's left to your imagination. But, as one of the more socially and culturally important film noirs ever made, Force of Evil is essential to all lovers of film. Entertaining, yes. But, maybe you can learn something, too.