This obviously is not one of Bogart's most famous films, it should be cause it is an entertaining film noir that holds your interest from start to finish. They don't make 'em like this anymore. The plot involves Bogart as a D.A., whose star witness in bringing the head of a murder racket to justice dies before the trial. In a lengthy flashback, Bogart retraces the case from the beginning, looking for some bit of testimony that might help him nail the killer before he gets set free. Bogart is good as his usual tough-guy self, and is trying to prosecute the boss man of a Murder Incorporated type of crime organization but keeps running into road blocks with people getting killed. Bogie plays it well although Bogie could play Mary Poppins and make it look good.At the end Bogie does what Bogie does well. This is a great movie. If you are a Bogart fan, this is a must have.

For some reason, I thought this film was a lot earlier than 1951. The reason is that it looks for all the world like a B movie and sounds like one. It's possible Bogart owed Warners a film, though what his excuse was for making "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" I've never figured out. He must have owed them a lot of films. Apparently the director became quite ill and Bogart asked Raoul Walsh, who refused to take any credit, to take over. This helps the film to come off well, but to me it still seems like a B movie with an A list star and director."The Enforcer" is a crime noir, with Bogart as Martin Ferguson, a frustrated District Attorney who loses yet another witness against a crime boss, Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane). Ferguson's witness (Ted de Corsia) is due to go into court the next day, but he panics and tries to leave via a window too many flights up.Ferguson stays up the night before the trial with Captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) going over the case incident by incident, trying to figure out if there is anybody else who can help him put this killer in prison.There are flashbacks within flashbacks here as different people tell a story about the organization.I liked the denouement of this movie. I found it effective and also suspenseful.Bogart, as usual, is great, as the no-nonsense DA, and he has good support from Zero Mostel, Sloane, King Donovan, and Michael Tolan, among others.Good crime drama.

I've long been convinced that popular fiction and movies are true barometers of social history and The Enforcer tends to bear me out. What five-year-old child at any time in the last forty years would be unable to interpret 'contract' and 'hit' when encountered in the context of a thriller/noir/caper/gangster movie yet here, in 1951, both hard-bitten detectives and an Assistant District Attorney are as bemused as Hoosier tourists hearing Urdu for the first time whilst on vacation in the sub-Continent. For a few moments this tends to strain credulity when watching this in 2010 but we're soon wallowing in the great casting that tosses such disparate actors as Bob Steele, Zero Mostel, Everett Sloane, Roy Roberts, Ted de Corsica and Bogie into the mix. Bogie is, it must be said, strangely subdued as yet another D.A. -he had, after all, been playing them since Marked Woman, Knock On Any Door, etc - but even the multi flashbacks can't really spoil this good old-fashioned 'thick ear' entry.

Enforcer, The (1951) *** (out of 4)Warner Brothers made Humphrey Bogart a star with films such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and High Sierra but early in his career Bogart was playing the smaller role in gangster films like The Roaring Twenties and Angels with Dirty Faces 1951's The Enforcer would mark the end to that type of gangster film from the studio but it started a rather unique and overlooked portion of Bogart's career. This isn't your typical gangster film but the story is based on the real life case of a Murder, Inc. gang.District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Bogart) has spent the last four years of his life trying to bust a gang of hired killers who have left hundreds of bodies lying around. The case was a hard one to crack because there were never any witnesses and none of the murders had a motive. Finally, Joseph Rico agrees to testify against the big man of the operation as long as Ferguson offers him protection. The night before the big trial Rico begins to lose his nerve because there have already been two attempts on his life.Ferguson finally calms Rico down and gets him back on his side but within minutes Rico tries to escape from the window and falls to his death. With seven hours before court starts Ferguson finds himself without a witness, which means the guy running this deadly operation will be back on the streets very soon. With nothing left to do Ferguson decides to go back over the evidence in hope that a name or something will pop up so he can take a true case to court. We then get various flashbacks to those in the gang and the story, which lead Rico to agree to testify.The Enforcer is a throwback to the 1930's with pictures such as the Dick Tracy series but it has a blend of film noir, which makes it worth watching even though the end results aren't as great as one would hope. This film was one of the last of its type and Bogart is as great as usual playing the tough as nails D.A. who'll stop at nothing to get the big case solved. The biggest downfall to the film is its screenplay, which introduces many characters but none of them very interesting.I think the films biggest problem is the way it's told in a flashback form. The mystery in the film is supposed to be breaking the case but the case is pretty much broken within the first five minutes of the film. The tension then goes to the final seven hours before the court case when the D.A. must find a witness to put on the stand but this here doesn't work because the majority of the characters aren't too interesting and they certainly don't bring any extra life to the movie. Most of them just point fingers at other men and then those men point more fingers until the end when we are pretty much at the start of the film. Out of nowhere Bogart discovers the missing key to the case, which is a very good moment and leads to a tense ending. It's just too bad the rest of the stories weren't as interesting.Bogart is very good in the role, although this is the type of character he could play while sleeping. Bogart really doesn't bring anything new to the table but even the old Bogart is great enough to keep the interest level high. By the old Bogart I'm talking about the guy who'll slap around anyone to get the information he wants and we get plenty of that here including a wonderful scene inside an insane asylum where Bogart has to crack a witness. This toughness is what made Bogart a legend and he uses this throughout the film. The rest of the players are pretty much cliché stuff and don't deserve to stand next to Bogart.Where the film does work is its brilliant opening and closing. The opening, in the dark streets, is wonderfully shot and the director is able to get some wonderful tension out of the scene. The opening lasts around fifteen minutes and while we know something bad is going to happen the director is able to build the suspense by carrying everything out. The ending has a nice surprise twist that will catch most people off guard and then it's a chase between Bogart to get to the witness before the hired killers do. Had the beginning of the film had just a portion of the suspense like the opening and closing then I'm sure The Enforcer would have been better remembered today. As it stand, the film is nothing great but there's enough good stuff to make it highly recommended.