THE ENFORCER
US, 1950, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Humphrey Bogart, Everett Sloane, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia, Roy Roberts, King Donovan.
Directed by Brentaigne Windust.
The Enforcer is an effective Humphrey Bogart vehicle. It is brisk, full of action, showing understanding of police procedures and criminal conspiracies. It was made in the wake of the Kefauver Report on Organised Crime. It seems somewhat quaint in later decades to hear police arguing about the meaning of 'contract and 'hit'. However, it focuses on the syndicates and organisations for murders.
The film was directed by Brentaigne Windust, although Raoul Walsh had a great deal to do with the film. It has a good supporting cast including Zero Mostel. Very good of its kind.
1. An interesting crime thriller? Murder Incorporated? Police, the '50s? Later decades?
2. A Humphrey Bogart vehicle? His presence and style? Strength and conviction?
3. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, the city, light and dark, day and night? Editing pace?
4. The flashback structure and the focus on Rico, his death? The flashbacks within the story? The framework of Rico's death and the conviction of Mendoza? The mystery unravelling? The build-up of detection? Dramatic and emotional?
5. The background of organised crime, the bosses, types, drug addicts, murderers? Contracts and hits? The hiring, the organisation, phone calls and executions?
6. Humphrey Bogart as Ferguson - with Rico, tough, guarding him, his hopes and fears, Rico on the ledge, Ferguson unable to hold him? Retracing the steps, listening to the tapes? The review of detection? Ferguson as active, trying to understand the contracts, the encounter with Duke, the dead girl, interrogating Olga, interrogating Babe and the treatment of his family? Learning more detail? The visit to Philadelphia in the asylum? Rico and his arrest, deals? The encounter with Mendoza? Holding him in prison? The visit to Angela and the realisation who she was? The loudspeaker over the streets? The shoot-out? Ferguson with his key witness?
7. The picture of the police assistants, their work, the seemingly impersonal style, their dedication, dangers?
8. Rico and his arrest, confession, his being scared, the precautions taken to save him, his going out on the ledge, his death? Seeing him in flashback, his controlling of the killers? His arrest, decision to betray Mendoza? The irony of his attack on Mendoza - and Mendoza smooth-talking him into working for him?
9. Mendoza and his wiliness, cruelty, contracts, prison, realisation that the wrong woman was killed when he saw the photos?
10. The group of hit-men, their recruitment, Duke and Nina, O'Hara and his drinking, Philadelphia and the drugs, the various tough men, cruelty, contracts on each of them? Olga and her place as a centre for them?
11. Angela and Nina, the wrong girl being killed, Angela on the street, her fear, the telephone call? The flashback to her father's death and Rico and his hold on the barber?
12. Babe and his fear, his wife and children?
13. An elaboration of a case, preparation, evidence, frustration? The semi-documentary style of the film?
