The Enforcer

Assistant district attorney Martin Ferguson has been working on one file for years. His only witness will speak in court tomorrow and the whole organisation will fall. That night the man goes out of a window. Ferguson waits for morning with nothing left. He opens the records again; perhaps something was missed inside the file. The narrative goes back. How the organisation was built is described: murder is sold as a service, the gunmen do not know the victim, and no connection can be traced. Ferguson is looking for a name and nobody knows it. Bretaigne Windust directs; part of the shoot was completed by Raoul Walsh, who went uncredited. Humphrey Bogart plays Ferguson; Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia and Everett Sloane are in the cast. It is an American production, made in 1951. Its ground is a real organisation; a structure built on murder for hire had been uncovered in America and the film rests on it. The narrative uses flashbacks inside flashbacks and the time is layered. Working out what one word means becomes the turning point of the narrative. Bogart was starting to move away from crime parts in this period; the character here is tired and not a hero. The photography is high contrast and the night scenes dominate. The narrative does not show the violence; the killings are described and the camera stays outside. The ending is rushed and the solution rests on coincidence. Its limit is structure; the narrative is confusing, there are too many characters, and the ending easy. Who it is for: viewers who like film noir and Bogart's films. Who it is not for: it is confusing, old, and the ending rushed.