One impactful film that is prophetic of the Trump age of unbridled capitalism is FORCE OF EVIL, a 1948 crime thriller film-noir starring John Garfield and directed and written by Abraham Polonsky based on Ira Wolfert’s novel, “Tucker’s People.” Wolfert co-wrote the screenplay with Polonsky. I watched this film this weekend, and it confirmed my appreciation for John Garfield, a consummate actor whose intensity is not only convincing but also mystifying.
The story unfolds with Joe Morse (John Garfield), a firecracker and an unethical lawyer, who represents crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts) for planning a numbers scheme on July 4th to wipe out small racketeering gaming outlets called banks. Morse’s older brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), overweight, sweaty with a weak heart, owns and runs a small bank, who Tucker wants to merge into a big operation that plays an illegal lottery called Policy. Joe wants to enlist Leo in the merger. Leo emphatically says no to the offer and wants to run a small family-like business without gangsters. He urges Joe to let his young secretary, Doris Lowry (Beatrice Pearson), leave the bank unscathed, but a police raid ensues, and she’s tainted. Joe and Doris, lonely in the City, fall in love plunging in and out of the gloomy darkness of criminal greed and turmoil.
Polonsky provided a poetic stream of consciousness dialogue, conflict, and an intense epic of the dilemma, money vs. ethics between two brothers of a different character. The opening shot of Trinity Church and framing Wall Street provide symbolism encompassed in capitalism, and the ending shot at the George Washington bridge gives unequivocal hope of Joe’s redemption.
The back story regarding the creation of the film by John Garfield’s production company, Enterprise, which he modeled after the collectivism of The Group Theatre, is remarkable. Garfield, a leftist, not affiliated as a member of the Communist party, hired top talent non-discriminatory towards their communist sympathies like Polonsky, a Marxist. Polonsky sees capitalist corruption through the lens of gut-wrenching realism that money corrupts the soul and compromises moral values.
After the film release, Polonsky refused to name names to the U.S. Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee and subsequently blacklisted in Hollywood as well as Robert Rossen, the director of Enterprise film hit, BODY AND SOUL. Garfield was under immense pressure to name names, died of a heart attack in1952 at age 39.
Trump seemingly compromised by the Russians, and the GOP enablers of the President’s criminal wrongdoing are a force of evil that is undermining democracy every day. Villains in films get their comeuppance. Trump’s impeachment is coming.
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