Release Date: January 25, 1951
Running Time: 85 minutes
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ted de Corsica, Everett Sloane
Directed By: Bretaigne Windust
It is perhaps a daring move to tell a story about a murder investigation and obfuscate the entire affair with flashbacks inside of more flashbacks. Yet that is exactly what director Bretaigne Windust and screenwriter Martin Rackin have done with 1951’s The Enforcer, a film determined to bleed any real joy out of an already joyless police procedural film. Some may gleam enjoyment out of seeing clues examined over and over again in a frustratingly laid out way but the average movie goer will find it at times tedious and frustrating.
The Enforcer opens with District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) holding racketeer and career criminal Joseph Rico (Ted de Corsica) for questioning. The real man Ferguson wants is Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), a particularly nasty criminal known to have committed murders yet there has never been any evidence to convict him. Rico can provide that evidence but he fears that, even with police protection, Mendosa’s men will get to him anyway. In an escape attempt, Rico falls to his death leaving Ferguson no one to testify against Mendoza. This forces Ferguson to have to go back over the case files for every detail in a desperate attempt to find any possible clue that may have been missed. As he does this the film flashes back to the investigation, and flashes back again and again.
There are some good moments amongst all the flashbacks. The intimidation and breaking of “Big Babe” Lazick and the subsequent scenes of his ill treatment at the hands of his fellow gangsters is both sad and pathetic. He has a wife and child to protect and child and when the wife is threatened with jail time and the child with foster care, Lazick confesses to be a part of a troop of killers. He reveals certain code words that the gangsters use when on the phone to hide their true intent such as “contract” and “hit” as if these code words would be interpreted innocently by anyone bugging the phones. The troop are hired killers used to kill people in such a way that whomever hired them would have an alibi and be exempt from suspicion. This dates back to the one murder Rico witnessed Mendoza commit himself, the one murder Rico’s testimony could be used to send Mendoza to the chair.
This specific murder happened many years prior but was complicated by a couple of eye witnesses who saw Mendoza and Rico at the scene. The witnesses were Angela and her father. The father was later identified and killed but until recently Angela’s whereabouts were unknown. Later, Mendoza finds out where she is and has her killed by his men. But a mix up results in the girl’s roommate killed instead. When both Mendoza and Ferguson both discover this it becomes a race to either save or kill the one person still alive that could put Mendoza in the electric chair.
Much of the investigation is straight forward and devoid of any real life. Some of it is brutal including a harrowing scene where a mass grave is located filled with dozens of bodies. We don’t see the bodies but instead get treated to rows of shoes and other items used in an attempt to identify all the victims. It is unnerving a bit but neutered by the era of the film and a workmanlike staging of the scene. It is talkie and dry with few moments to liven things up. This plays out much the same in the many other moments through the investigation, really only livening up during the finale when everyone is looking for the real Angela.
The Enforcer is not a bad film, but it is a hard film to really find much of interest. Everett Sloane is fine as the villainous Mendoza but he gets little screen time here. Bogart is almost sleepwalking through a part that doesn’t require any real stretching of his acting ability. He barely emotes here beyond looking irritated that his prize witness has gone and fallen to his death in a fruitless attempt to climb to freedom. The film has lots of story to tell and lots of wheels rolling but fails to make much of it compelling enough to bother trying to make sense of all the flashbacks and non-chronological storytelling. It ends up making the whole film suffer from a lack of energy and investment. Some might find enjoyment in the matter-of-fact storytelling but most will come away from it disappointed.
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