The Enforcer

Seen for the first time in December 2012.

At first, "The Enforcer" seems like a generic Bogart film and a generic film noir as well. This would be fine as generic noir and generic Bogart are both pretty enjoyable and certainly better than bad noir or stale Bogart. But the off-putting thing is watching these cops in the 1950's who have never heard of a murder referred to as a "contract" or a "hit" by bad guy types. Watching this in what is near to anno domini 2013, this sounds silly. Naive even. Certainly almost insultingly so.

Nevertheless, the film ultimately begins to sizzle. We can see the twist involve the cab-driver's daughter a mile away. Certainly the moment he says "big blue eyes," we cotton on to where this is going. And Bogart playing a recording back at least three times to drive that home, is not only overkill but unbelievable. Also it's really damn strange that someone shoots at this guy Rico through a window, and then as soon as he can he's sticking his head out another window. Like you think that'd shake a man up enough to keep him away from windows for a while.

But the end is so tense. And the whole story comes together in a nice entertaining way. It's not Bogart at his best, but this film is very watchable, and the ending is as tense and suspenseful as any ten minutes in film. Okay, maybe not as tense as the end of "Vertigo." But as tense as any ten minutes in nearly any other film. Grade B+.