Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.
What do Patrons receive, that you don't?
1)
Our
weekly
Newsletter
sent to your Inbox every
Monday morning!
Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much. |
Search DVDBeaver |
S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
(aka "The Numbers Racket" or "The Story of Tucker's People")
directed
by Abraham Polonsky
USA 1948
A relentlessly grim and mesmerizing film noir, Force of Evil (1948)
presents a world thoroughly steeped in corruption. Director Martin Scorsese has
called the film a seminal influence on his own gangster dramas (Mean
Streets, 1973,
Goodfellas, 1990). Especially impacting Scorsese's own movie antiheroes
was Force of Evil's star John Garfield, as corrupt lawyer Joe Morse, a
man whose face is "a landscape of moral conflict." *** In New York City, unscrupulous lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield), has the opportunity to make it big by teaming up with cutthroat gangster Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts) to consolidate the numbers racket. The only hitch in the plan is Morse's brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), who refuses to involve his bank in the plan. As a result, Leo's bank would go from being saved to being another casualty in Morse and Tucker's thirst for power. Now, Morse must choose between money and family *** Dark and brooding, FORCE OF EVIL offers one of Garfield's greatest performances as the cynical, hard-as-nails lawyer. Pearson, in her first of only two films, doesn't really register in a role that could use Shelley Winters or Ida Lupino rather than a June Allyson clone. Her presence is more than offset, however, by Gomez's marvelous performance and that of the suitably slimy Roberts. A tour de force for gifted writer Polonsky, FORCE was the only film he directed before he was blacklisted for being an uncooperative witness before HUAC in 1951; he didn't direct another feature for 21 years. At its best, FORCE achieves a style at once brutal and poetic, documentarian and noir. |
Posters
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Theatrical Release: 25 December 1948 - USA
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Comparison:
Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL vs. Olive Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray vs. Arrow Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray |
Big thanks to Ole Kofoed for the Region 1 captures and thanks to Pieter Boven for the PAL DVD captures!
1)
Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC LEFT
2)
Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL
-
SECOND
3) Olive Film - Region FREE -
Blu-ray THIRD
4)
Arrow Film - Region
FREE -
Blu-ray RIGHT
|
Comments: |
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. ADDITION: Arrow Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray - November 17': Arrow's Four Film Noir Classics Limited Edition has The Dark Mirror, Secret Beyond the Door..., Force of Evil, and The Big Combo. They are not sold separately by Arrow at present and are only available in this boxset. There are other Blu-ray releases, like this Olive Film edition here, and we have compared many captures.Limited Edition set of only 2000 copies! The Arrow 1.33:1 transfer has a max'ed out bitrate - it is darker, cleaner, finer grain and has richer black levels. It doesn't seem to have the speckles of the Olive or they are not as prominent on the Arrow. The Arrow is, once again, the best in terms of image. Arrow is also better than the Olive Blu-ray in the audio - Arrow's 24-bit linear PCM mono vs. the DTS-HD Master (16-bit) track. The film has only one major aggressive scene but we get another seething score from David Raksin (Daisy Kenyon, Whirlpool, Fallen Angel, Laura, Bigger Than Life) and it's an important part of the film experience highlighting the undercurrent of deceit and corruption. It sounds excellent in the uncompressed. Arrow also add optional English (SDH) subtitles (see sample below) on their Region FREE Blu-ray disc.Another commentary - this one by Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme. I have not yet indulged but will do so soon. There is a 3/5-minute introduction to Force of Evil by Martin Scorsese also found, as the only extra, on the Olive Blu-ray plus Arrow include some new supplements. An Autopsy on Capitalism is a 38-minute visual essay on the production and reception of Force of Evil by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. He also does some excellent commentary on two selected Force of Evil themes by Krutnik running about 20-minutes in total. There are two fascinating radio programmes about 'Un-American Activity Witch Hunts' as addressed by Hollywood stars - each piece running about 1/2 hour plus an hour long Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of Body and Soul with Garfield. The package offers reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow for all films and a hardback book featuring new writing on all the films by noir experts and critics including Michael Brooke, Andrew Spicer, David Cairns and Tony Rayns and others.
The whole
Four Film Noir Classics Limited Edition
package is fantastic - one of the best of the year.
Noir aficionados should consider this Region FREE, 4
Blu-ray,
set a must own!
* ADDITION: Olive Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray - June 12': This is quite a big jump over the less polished SD visuals. The 1080P image is brighter, with more layered contrast and appears significantly sharper. The HD transfer shows some pleasing grain and supports the films deft cinematography to a much higher degree. Olive Films add the original mono track in a clean lossless rendering and add a classy Scorsese discussing and extolling the film (with spoilers) citing it as an important work in influencing many of his works from Mean Streets to Raging Bull. I'm very pleased with how Force of Evil a/v has turned out on Blu-ray and give this important film package a strong recommendation. ***
ON THE DVDs:
The French Region 2 is
horribly yellow/green, flat, dull, contrast boosted, has ghosting and is hazy...
and to top it off it has forced French subtitles. It eclipses the Region one in
Extras (not hard) but many of the features do not have English subs (and are
with French audio). I don't see any extensive cropping on either issue. Notice
the total time - this indicates that the Region 2 DVD was taken from a NTSC
source and not converted before digitizing to PAL. So it will have inherent
artifact problems as well as ghosting (see last capture).
Easy choice as the image on
the Region 2 is so dreadful - Region 1 all the way!
One note: I do like the French cover a lot better! |
Recommended Reading in Film Noir (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher |
Film Noir Reader 4 : The Crucial Films and Themes
(Film Noir Reader) by Alain Silver |
The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the
Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller |
The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir:
Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's by Peg Thompson, Saeko Usukawa |
Film Noir by Alain Silver |
Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era,
1940-1959 by Michael F. Keaney |
Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir by Foster Hirsch |
More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts by James Naremore |
Menus
|
|
|
|
|
|
Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
Arrow Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Subtitle Sample Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray
![]() |
1)
Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC TOP
2)
Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL
-
SECOND
3) Olive Film - Region FREE -
Blu-ray THIRD
4)
Arrow Film - Region
FREE -
Blu-ray BOTTOM
|
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
1)
Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC TOP
2)
Wild Side Video - Region 2 - PAL
-
SECOND
3) Olive Film - Region FREE -
Blu-ray THIRD
4)
Arrow Film - Region
FREE -
Blu-ray BOTTOM
|
|
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
More Blu-ray Captures
1) Olive Film - Region FREE -
Blu-ray TOP
2)
Arrow Film - Region
FREE -
Blu-ray BOTTOM
|
![]() |
![]() |
1) Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM |
![]() |
![]() |
1) Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM |
![]() |
![]() |
1) Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM |
![]() |
![]() |
1) Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM |
![]() |
![]() |
1) Olive Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow Film - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM |
![]() |
![]() |
Report Card:
Image: |
Arrow Blu-ray |
Sound: |
Arrow Blu-ray |
Extras: |
Arrow Blu-ray |