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The Enforcer

  • 1951
  • Approved
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
6K
YOUR RATING
Humphrey Bogart and Patricia Joiner in The Enforcer (1951)
A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.
Play trailer2:06
1 Video
99+ Photos
Film NoirCrimeThriller

A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.

  • Directors
    • Bretaigne Windust
    • Raoul Walsh
  • Writer
    • Martin Rackin
  • Stars
    • Humphrey Bogart
    • Zero Mostel
    • Ted de Corsia
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Bretaigne Windust
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writer
      • Martin Rackin
    • Stars
      • Humphrey Bogart
      • Zero Mostel
      • Ted de Corsia
    • 72User reviews
    • 31Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

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    Trailer 2:06
    Trailer

    Photos132

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    Top cast58

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    Humphrey Bogart
    Humphrey Bogart
    • Dist. Atty. Martin Ferguson
    Zero Mostel
    Zero Mostel
    • Big Babe Lazick
    Ted de Corsia
    Ted de Corsia
    • Joseph Rico
    • (as Ted De Corsia)
    Everett Sloane
    Everett Sloane
    • Albert Mendoza
    Roy Roberts
    Roy Roberts
    • Capt. Frank Nelson
    Michael Tolan
    Michael Tolan
    • James (Duke) Malloy
    • (as Lawrence Tolan)
    King Donovan
    King Donovan
    • Sgt. Whitlow
    Bob Steele
    Bob Steele
    • Herman
    • (as Robert Steele)
    Adelaide Klein
    • Olga Kirshen
    Don Beddoe
    Don Beddoe
    • Thomas O'Hara
    Tito Vuolo
    Tito Vuolo
    • Tony Vetto
    John Kellogg
    John Kellogg
    • Vince
    Jack Lambert
    Jack Lambert
    • Philadelphia Tom Zaca
    Richard Bartell
    • Police Records Clerk
    • (uncredited)
    Chet Brandenburg
    Chet Brandenburg
    • Ambulance Attendant
    • (uncredited)
    Helen Brown
    • Landlady
    • (uncredited)
    Benny Burt
    Benny Burt
    • Undetermined Secondary Role
    • (uncredited)
    Susan Cabot
    Susan Cabot
    • Nina Lombardo
    • (uncredited)
    • Directors
      • Bretaigne Windust
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writer
      • Martin Rackin
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews72

    7.25.9K
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    Featured reviews

    9adrianovasconcelos

    Great film noir, superb cinematography, Bogart at the top of his game

    B Windust and Raoul Walsh's direction is first class, B&W cinematography scintillating, good screenplay, Adelaide Klein's elegance and beauty is timeless, and Bogart in good form, ably supported by Mostel, di Corsia, and the rest of a robust cast.

    Very neat ending, too.
    9Don Ediger

    Playing to packed houses in Paris

    The Enforcer, whose French title is La femme à abattre, plays often to packed houses in Paris. More than one French critic has called the film a gem (un joyau) among film noir classics. Indeed, its popularity in France says lots about pure plot lines and straightforward characterizations which make the film accessible to non-English-speaking audiences. As many readers know, the French are crazy about American film noir, and it's common to see parents bring their children to see movies like The Enforcer. I recently sat next to such a family when the film played in March 2003 at the Grand Action cinéma in Paris. It was almost moving to hear the father explain to his son that they would be seeing a film which, in his words, is a classic with great insights in the American psyche. Hearing them speak made me wonder how many American families use films of decades past to teach their children about the world in which we live.

    By the way, the three cinémas in the Action chain in Paris regularly play American films noirs and other classic American movies, many of them in newly restored versions.

    Don Ediger
    7bkoganbing

    The Racket That Pays Best

    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. Like Charles Foster Kane's life, the story of the racket is told in flashback through the tapes.

    DeCorsia is the main character because all roads lead to him as the number two guy, but only he can finger Sloane. DeCorsia is seen as the frightened witness and also as the tough racketeer. It's almost two characters in the same film, but DeCorsia delivers on both.

    Everette Sloane is one chillingly evil villain. He's decided to sell the services of killers to those who need them. To other racketeers and to outsiders as well. No motive, the police can't track down the ] perpetrators. The words of this racket, like 'contract' and 'hit' are all familiar terms now, but then it was something fairly new.

    Bogart's function is like the reporter{s} who pieced together the life of Charles Foster Kane. It's essentially passive, he's one of the few people whoever played a District Attorney in films who never got a courtroom scene. But in the end, frantically trying to find and protect a crucial witness, he becomes quite proactive to say the least.

    Of course this is all borrowed from the stories about Murder, Inc. and it was familiar to the movie going public. But The Enforcer is a really taut crime drama that never lets your interest flag.

    It's so good that I can almost forgive a major plot flaw. Through some gross stupidity on Bogart's part, Sloane realizes there's a witness out there who can nail him and he takes appropriate steps. 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.
    7ma-cortes

    Stunning entertainment with twisted intrigue , thrills , realist frames and based on the real-life ¨Murder Inc.¨case

    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) . As the assistant district attorney goes after an organized band of murderers and to condemn Mendoza as well as put his gang behind bars . Meanwhile , Mendoza is in prison and his lieutenant Joseph Rico (Ted De Corsia) is going to testify . But Rico falls from a building to his death and Ferguson along with Capt. Frank Nelson (Roy Roberts) must work through the night going over everything to study the issue anew .

    Exciting and thrilling picture with a complex intrigue , nice character studio , suspense , a lot of killings and full of flashbacks . One of the most grueling of even Bogart's mobster movies all done in gripping realism and shot in semi-documentary style . Interesting and moving screenplay by Martin Rackin . The picture has a Noir treatment of the real-life ¨Murder Inc¨ case , being narrated by means of flashbacks . There are murders galore ; as grisly killings by : hanging , razor , knife , falling heights , point blank shot and by pick axe filmed in hypnotic realism . Faint-heart people of the 50s were impressed for killing galore , horrific scenes and strong images by that time . According to the New York Times' Feb. 16, 2014 article on films influenced by the Kefauver hearings, Sen. Estes Kefauver appeared in a prologue for this film . It's splendidly played by Humphrey Bogart ; he was in his best period of the early 50s when he starred classic movies such as ¨The Caine Mutiny¨, ¨Sabrina¨, ¨Beat the devil¨, ¨The African Queen¨, ¨Sirocco¨, ¨In a lonely place¨, ¨Chain lightning¨, ¨Knock on any door¨ and this ¨The enforcer¨. 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 . Evocative and adequate cinematography by Robert Burks , Hitchcock's usual . Appropriate as well as atmospheric musical score by David Buttolph adds impact to the action .

    The motion picture produced and distributed by Warner Bros. was compellingly directed by Bretaigne Windust . After several days of filming, director Bretaigne Windust fell seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Humphrey Bogart asked his old friend, director Raoul Walsh, to come in and shoot the picture until Windust recovered. Unfortunately, Windust was more seriously ill than most realized, and his recovery took several months, during which Walsh finished the film. However, Walsh refused to take screen credit for it, saying that the picture was Windust's big break and he wasn't going to take it away from him . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching . The film will appeal to Humphrey Bogart fans .
    8AlsExGal

    Bogie is a bow tie wearing prosecutor...

    ... in a very suspenseful but oddly constructed noir. The first part is centered on prosecutor Martin Ferguson's (Bogart's) attempt to keep star witness Rico alive until the murder trial of Albert Mendoza the next day. Rico arrives in an armored truck with cops armed with rifles surrounding him. The fact that Ferguson spends the rest of the film in flashback, wondering if he possible missed a potential witness who could replace Rico on the stand, will tell you he failed. How he failed I'll let you see for yourself. The flashback is Ferguson thinking back to the beginning of what became the Mendoza case and how everything unfolded, starting with a guy wandering into a police station saying he just killed his girlfriend, and that he was made to do it, yet he cannot lead the police to a body or produce a motive as to why anybody would want this girl dead, if she ever existed in the first place. One investigating cop thinks he is crazy, the other does not. They take this case to Ferguson, and thus the investigation begins.

    One interesting thing that is done is that Mendoza is not shown until the very end. He is discussed at length, so you build up an image of this guy in your head. And then they deliver somebody as Mendoza that does not look like what you are probably expecting and who comes up with a horrific idea for a new criminal enterprise with the dispassionate logic of an accountant. This film is relatively unknown among Bogart's filmography, and that is probably because he doesn't get to display any trademark Bogart traits in his performance such as paranoia, cynicism, or bravery. Instead he is a bit of a cog in a police procedural wheel, but he still delivers.

    Bretagne Windust was supposed to direct this film, and he did start out doing so but then illness caused Raoul Walsh to direct about 90% of it although he did not take credit.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The death of the "Joe Rico" character in a fall from a building parallels the real-life death (in 1941) of Abe Reles (aka "Kid Twist"), an underworld killer whose arrest the previous year led authorities first to discover the existence of the organization popularly dubbed "Murder Inc." in the newspapers. Reles, in order to avoid execution in the electric chair, agreed to testify against the organization after submitting to a police interrogation about it, which famously took a full two weeks to complete, so exhaustive were his recollections. However, he never appeared on the stand, dying --after falling or being pushed out of a window in the hotel where he was staying---the day before he was due to appear. The film depicts Rico's death as a tragic accident, but it is more than likely that Reles' death was murder--one which, furthermore, almost certainly had the collusion of corrupt police officers, although this was never proved.
    • Goofs
      There is no explanation given as why Rico's recorded confession and the murder attempt the night of his death cannot stand in court to convict Mendoza.
    • Quotes

      [Big Babe Lazich has just been invited to join Rico's gang. While he is waiting, he notices that Rico is always on the phone]

      Babe Lazich: Who calls him on the phone?

      Philadelphia Tom Zaca: If you're a good swimmer, you can ask the guy who found out. He's at the bottom of the river.

      [He grins]

    • Connections
      Featured in Bullets Over Hollywood (2005)
    • Soundtracks
      Kiss Me Sweet
      (uncredited)

      Written by Milton Drake

      Played over the sidewalk loudspeakers

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    FAQ14

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 24, 1951 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Svedok mora da umre
    • Filming locations
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • United States Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $1,109,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 27 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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