Jan 30, 2024
The Enforcer (Murder, Inc., 1951)
"In seven more hours, Mendoza walks out of that courtroom a free man. How can that be? What's wrong with the law that we can't touch him? Oh, I know, our kind of laws are designed to protect the innocent. It's not enough that we know a man is guilty, we have to prove it."
#the enforcer#murder‚ inc.#1951#film noir#american cinema#bretaigne windust#martin rackin#raoul walsh#humphrey bogart#ted de corsia#zero mostel#everett sloane#roy roberts#michael tolan#king donovan#bob steele#don beddoe#adelaide klein#jack lambert#john kellogg#compellingly told police procedural noir. the real draw here is the effective and fairly original shape of the narrative: we open with#Bogart looking after his key witness‚ his case against a major gangland figure all but sown up. when said witness falls to his death#(undoubtedly inspired by the real world death of Abe Reles‚ a hitman for the irl Murder Inc who fell to his death whilst in police custody#having turned informant) Bogie has to go back over the case to date‚ cueing up a series of flashbacks in reverse order. it's a neat conceit#and allows for characters we've already met (and indeed already seen die) to be reintroduced in a way that shows them in a very different#light. a strong cast too; Bogie is Bogie‚ unchallenged by this part but effortlessly charismatic‚ with some great supports (shout out to#the perennially brilliant Mostel‚ a very fine dramatic actor who's often remembered only for his comedy). the idea that these cops have no#understanding whatsoever of terms like 'a hit' or 'a contract' somewhat stretches the suspension of disbelief but then after all there must#have been a time when those phrases were unfamiliar (this could always be a period piece i suppose; it isn't at all clear but the real#Murder Inc were exposed and disbanded in the early 40s so maybe this is meant to be then (tho some big changes made to the real story)
