The Enforcer (1951)
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86% of critics liked it
(7 reviews) -
68% of users liked it
(1,201 ratings)
Humphrey Bogart plays Martin Ferguson, a prosecutor about to put Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the head of a murder-for-hire ring, on trial. But the night before the trial, his key witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies in a fall out of the window of the room in which he's been guarded, part… More Humphrey Bogart plays Martin Ferguson, a prosecutor about to put Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the head of a murder-for-hire ring, on trial. But the night before the trial, his key witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies in a fall out of the window of the room in which he's been guarded, part of an abortive escape attempt to keep from testifying. His case in shambles, Ferguson and detective Captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) try to piece the entire four-year investigation back together from square one, trying to find something that might give them another way to prosecute Mendoza. The main body of the movie is told in flashback, starting when a small-time hood named Duke Malloy (Michael Tolan, then billed as Lawrence Tolan) walks into a police station to turn himself in for killing his girlfriend -- and says that someone made him kill her. He babbles to the bewildered detectives about "hits" and "contracts" and men nicknamed Philadelphia, Big Babe, and Smiley. The body isn't found, but they arrest Malloy, who hangs himself in his cell. That dead end leads, almost by accident, to Philadelphia Tom Zaca (Jack Lambert), an asylum inmate who has to be put under sedation at the mention of Malloy's name. They find another suspect's body burning in his building's incinerator, and then Big Babe Lazick (Zero Mostel), a two-bit hood, hiding in a church in mortal fear of his life. He begins weaving a tale of a murder-by-contract ring and its head operator, Joe Rico, of a murder contract that Duke Malloy never filled on a girl who had to change her name, of mistaken identity and the murder of the girl's cab-driver father, and the connection between that and a murder that they both witnessed eight years earlier. In the midst of all of those interlocking stories (spread across ten years), there's something Ferguson missed -- when he had Rico to testify -- that he has to sort out from the reams of testimony and evidence, and he has to figure it out before Mendoza does, or lose the last witness he has. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Directed By
- Bretaigne Windust
- Written By
- Martin Rackin
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Feb 24, 1951 Wide
- Studio
- Republic Pictures Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Vivid film noir, with many images that recall other Raoul Walsh thrillers.
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Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Fine latter day Bogie (1950), and the title says it all.
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Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
A história bem construída e as boas atuações são o ponto forte deste noir, que se inspirou em fatos reais e foi um dos primeiros filmes a abordar o universo dos assassinos profissionais - e Bogart, mesmo no piloto automático, é sempre interessante.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A fast moving film.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Cast
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Humphrey Bogart
as Martin Ferguson
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Zero Mostel
as Big Babe Lazich
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Ted de Corsia
as Joseph Rico
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Everett Sloane
as Albert Mendoza
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Roy Roberts
as Captain Frank Nelson
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King Donovan
as Sgt. Whitlow
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Lawrence Tolan
as Duke Malloy
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Patricia Joiner
as Teresa Davis/Angela Vetto
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Don Beddoe
as Thomas O'Hara
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Tito Vuolo
as Tony Vetto
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John Kellogg
as Vince
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Jack Lambert
as Philadelphia Tom Zaca
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Adelaide Klein
as Olga Kirshen
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Susan Cabot
as Nina Lombardo
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Mario Siletti
as Louis the Barber
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Thomas P. Dillon
as Policeman
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Ralph Dunn
as Sergeant
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Greta Granstedt
as Mrs. Lazick
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Eula Guy
as Landlady
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Creighton Hale
as Clerk
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Chuck Hamilton
as Policeman
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Pete Kellett
as Intern
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Karen Kester
as Nina as a child
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Perc Launders
as Police Sergeant
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George Meader
as Medical Examiner
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Howard Mitchell
as Chief
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Jay Morley
as Policeman
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Barry Reagan
as Intern
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Dan Riss
as Mayor
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Bob Steele
as Herman
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Harry Wilson
as B.J.
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Bud Wolfe
as Fireman
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Patricia Hayes
as Teenager
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John Maxwell
as Doctor
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Montgomery Pittman
as Intern
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Richard Bartell
as Clerk
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Art Dupuis
as Keeper
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Alan Foster
as Shorty
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Michael Lally
as Detective
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Louis Lettieri
as Boy
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Robert Strong
as Secretary
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James Brick Sullivan
as Police Chauffeur
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Tom Dillon
as Policeman
