The Power of Evil (1948)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The power of evil |
| Original title | Force of Evil |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Abraham Polonsky |
| script | Abraham Polonsky Ira Wolfert |
| production | Bob Roberts |
| music | David Raksin |
| camera | George Barnes |
| cut | Kind be |
| occupation | |
| |
The Force of Evil (Original Title: Force of Evil) is an American film noir by Abraham Polonsky from 1948 . The black and white film is based on the novel Tucker's People by Ira Wolfert .
action
Joe Morse is the lawyer for the former prohibition gangster and now working in the credit business, Ben Tucker. Tucker is planning a big coup for Independence Day : by manipulating the number lottery, he wants to win the most wagered number 776 (for 1,776 , the year of independence), which will ruin the insolvent small betting banks in New York and bring it under his control. Joe summons his brother Leo, who also runs a betting bank, to voluntarily join Tucker and thus forestall his ruin. However, Leo refuses to do business with Tucker. Joe gives the police a tip to blow up Leo's company and thus release him from his payment obligations.
Tucker's maneuver succeeds, the ruined betting banks are forced to take out loans from him and become part of his betting monopoly. Even Leo, who, despite the police closure, insists on paying his customers the winnings they are entitled to, is now in Tucker's debt. Bill Ficco's gang, who compete with Tucker, wants to earn money from the betting business and tries to bring some of the banks under his control under their control. They force Leo's accountant Freddie Bauer to hand Leo over to them. Meanwhile, Joe falls in love with Leo's young secretary Doris and, under her influence, begins to question his partnership with Tucker. When he learns that his brother has been kidnapped and that Freddie Bauer has been shot, he goes to see Tucker. In Tucker's house he also runs into Ficco, who has just reached an agreement with his competitor and declares that Leo, for whom there was no longer any use, had been eliminated. In revenge, Joe announces that he will make his knowledge available to the prosecutor, whereupon Tucker wants to eliminate him. Tucker and Ficco are killed in the subsequent shooting. Joe finds Leo's body under the George Washington Bridge , now all the more determined to testify before the prosecutor.
background
The Force of Evil, the directorial debut of screenwriter Polonsky, was directed by Roberts Productions, the joint film production company of Bob Roberts and lead actor John Garfield, which previously produced the Hunt for Millions written by Polonsky . The film was shot partly in the studio and partly in striking locations such as Wall Street and the George Washington Bridge. Polonsky asked cameraman George Barnes to use pictures by Edward Hopper as a guide.
The Power of Evil premiered in the United States on December 26, 1948. In Germany , the film did not run in cinemas, on 19 September 1970, he was first shown on television.
Polonsky, Roberts, and Garfield were targeted by the Committee on Un-American Activities during the McCarthy era . All three refused to reveal the names of their left companions to the committee. From then on Polonsky could only work under a false name, Roberts left the USA, Garfield died shortly afterwards at the age of only 39. It wasn't until 1969 that Polonsky got the opportunity to direct again with Bloody Spur .
Director Martin Scorsese stated that The Hunt for Millions and The Power of Evil had a major impact on his films. “The moral drama [in The Power of Evil ] has almost mythical proportions [...] Not only the individual is corrupt, but the whole system. This is both a political and an existential vision. "(Scorsese)
criticism
“A fast-paced guilt-and-atonement drama, brilliantly and fully implemented. From ingredients and ideas that have been used many times in the past [...] it draws tension and horror, an authentic feeling for the desolation of crime and a premonition of damnation. [...] Mr. Polonsky, a newcomer to directing, proves to be a man full of imagination and undoubted ability. "
“ Socially critical crime film that paints a grim picture of American society in the 1940s; conventional, but brilliantly staged. "
Awards
The Power of Evil was listed in 1994 as "Culturally, Historically, or Aesthetically Significant" on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress .
See also
literature
- Ira Wolfert: Tucker's People. L. B. Fischer, New York 1943
Web links
- The power of evil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ English "numbers banks", small illegal banks that have specialized in the administration of betting income and the payment of winnings in lottery games.
- ^ Patrick J. McGrath: John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films And on Stage. McFarland & Co., Jefferson (NC) 1993, pp. 90-92.
- ↑ Edward Dimendberg: Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) / London 2004, p. 266.
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 105-106.
- ↑ a b The Power of Evil in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ^ Patrick J. McGrath: John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films And on Stage. 1993, p. 120, p. 149 ff.
- ^ Robert Nott: He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield. Limelight / Proscenium Publishers, New York 2003, p. 301.
- ^ Robert Sklar: City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield. Princeton University Press, 1992, pp. 183-188.
- ↑ "The moral drama has almost a mythical scale [...] It's not just the individual who's corrupted, but the entire system. It's a political as well as an existential vision." - Paul Buhle, Dave Wagner: A Very Dangerous Citizen: Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Hollywood Left. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles 2001, p. 125.
- ↑ "[...] a dynamic crime-and-punishment drama, brilliantly and broadly realized. Out of material and ideas that have been worked over time after time […] it gathers suspense and dread, a genuine feeling of the bleakness of crime and a terrible sense of doom. [...] New to the business of directing, Mr. Polonsky here establishes himself as a man of imagination and unquestioned craftsmanship. ”- Review in the New York Times on December 27, 1948, accessed on March 7, 2013.
- ↑ List of films in the National Film Registry.