To me, this movie is perfection.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting in this movie is really good.

"Murder, Inc" finds Humphrey Bogart playing a District Attorney who works closely with police detectives in the hopes of solving a series of violent murders. As the film progresses we learn that the murders were committed by a ring of assassins under the command of a devilish gang leader called Mendoza.Directed by Bretaigne Windust, the film is told largely through flashbacks. Unfortunately Windust's direction is flat and his script uninspired, the film only coming alive during 3 action sequences, two of which were ghost directed by Raoul Walsh.7/10 – Decades of television cop shows and police procedurals have diluted any impact "The Enforcer" might have once had. The always watchable Bogart turns in a solid performance, but the rest of the film is simply lacklustre. The film's finale is handled well, though, and a basement gangland meeting is suitably ominous.Note: The film is often classed as a "film noir". It is not.

Bogart may be the star, but it's De Corsia who supplies the vitality. The opening sequence remains a riveting case study in wild-eyed fear, as Rico (de Corsia) sweats a bucket load even though he's safely behind police walls. He's got good reason to sweat. The real life character that Rico appears based on, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, ended up dead in police custody, somehow falling from a fifth story window before testifying against Murder Inc. How convenient.This may not be the Warner Bros. of the 1930's, but it's still fast, tough, and unsentimental. And when killer Digger lets out a yelp knowing his turn has come, I was chilled to the bone and without need of fancy special effects. If the first 15 minutes amounts to paranoia run amok, the last amounts to suspense in spades as a cold-eyed killer stalks an unsuspecting girl along crowded city streets.What a great cast of character parts-- plug-ugly psycho Jack Lambert all wrapped up in ice and apparently loving it; Fatso Zero Mostel auditioning as an assassin but serving as a kick-me doorstop instead; and a menacing Bob Steele brandishing a revolver instead of his usual six-gun, along with such familiar yet unsung faces as police chief Roy Roberts and detective King Donovan who gets an unscheduled face wash and without a towel. District attorney Bogart's good too, blending in nicely instead of trying to hog the screen as major stars sometimes do.No romantic clinches here, just a chilling tale about an ambitious guy with a bright idea that can't be advertised in the Yellow Pages. Things get pretty complicated trying to fit the flashbacks into the unfolding events, but it all comes together in the end. Can't say I was impressed, however, by the key that unlocks the puzzle. Seems pretty far-fetched and certainly wouldn't work in these days of colorized contacts. Nonetheless, this is a surprisingly tense and uncompromised look at touchy subject that's since become familiar, but still merits a look-see.

Literally one of the darkest of noir films, though not everyone's favorite it seems.THE ENFORCER is criticized in several comments posted on IMDb in part for its portraying cops learning code words such as "hit" and "contract", for the first time.The words are a minor springboard device which aren't crucial to the evidence. Eye-witness testimony is what the cops badly need to put the top man in the chair.The historical context loosely linking the plot to Murder, Inc. hardly diminishes the ability of the film to hold up as an edgy crime suspense drama some 55 years later. It's a movie with a great ensemble cast of character actors relishing the juicy dialog.Of course viewers today aren't going to drop their jaws over the cinematic debut of words that have long since become common in the colloquial lexicon.Especially when there are plenty of great lines in the film to enjoy, and even mimic over and over again:Such as Ted De Corsia's "He ain't human!", "I gotta get-out-of-here!" and "You know what to use. Use it!"And the meeting between the #1 man and his #2 man, whose repartee enriched with sinister gestures is well worth rediscovering:Mendoza- "I've been worked over by some of the best, and you're just what I'm looking for." Rico -"What? You want some more?" Mendoza - "I can use a guy like you!"Rico - "You must be nuts!" Mendoza - "I've still got a dime left. C'mon, I'll buy you a cup of coffee!"Mendoza - "Someday you'll realize I'm a great man. I'll make you a rich man." Rico - "I must have kicked you in the head!"Mendoza - "This is my first contract. I'm getting paid $500 for the hit." Rico - "You'll never have $500 as long as you live!"My favorite shock scene is when a hit man realizes he's about to be "taken care of" by an old crony, he makes a desperate break for it into the night, letting out a blood-curdling scream.THE ENFORCER is not presented as a bio or semi-documentary at all, really. There is no narration, no final moral. Bogey doesn't indirectly lecture the viewers, instead he's picking his own brain as Ferguson. Though he's a dedicated lawman, Bogey's not playing a preachy reformer as did John McIntire (Police Commissioner Hardy), quite admirably to be sure, in the 1950 John Huston crime caper classic, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. ASPHALT JUNGLE and FORCE OF EVIL are also films with scenes of double-crosses and back- stabbing that I enjoy as much as THE ENFORCER.Relentlessly grim, and for the most part original, THE ENFORCER stands on it's own.The ending is a bit anti-climatic only because it wraps up so quickly after all the tension and flashbacks have reached the anticipated moment of the "pay-off", so I rate it a 9 out of 10. I had no problem with the way the story unfolds as we are given pieces of the puzzle. The flashbacks get better and better so my advice is stick with it. Underrated gem, deserving better than the reserved reviews and short shrift it often gets.Zero Mostel, Everett Sloane, Ted De Corsia, Jack Lambert etc. all contribute what are perhaps among their best, if brief, performances on film,TWO ICE-PICKS, WAY UP!

You won't hear "The Enforcer" mentioned when it comes to Humphrey Bogart's body of famous work, but it's a very watchable mystery that pulls you in early, and keeps you interested with each new revelation. Bogie's character is Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson, who along with police pal Frank Nelson (Roy Roberts), unravels a murder for profit enterprise in a deftly told story with a clever twist that finally sinks the big fish behind it.Like the Charlie Chan films of an earlier era, I found that keeping a scorecard for the colorful cast of characters is helpful to keep track of the action. You've got names like Big Babe, Philadelphia Tom, Smiley, Sad Eyes and Duke Molloy to keep track of, all as the story unfolds in a flashback within a flashback framework. One of the more interesting things for me in this 1950 film was it's explanation of the terms "contract" and "hit", obviously recent additions to the crime lexicon for it's day, though hardly unknown today.The movie offers a lot of clichéd lines that were probably fresh at the time, take Ferguson's command to the paranoid Rico (Ted De Corsia) the day before he's set to testify against mob boss Mendoza (Everett Sloane) - "He'll die, he's got to die, and you're going to kill him." Though Rico dies in a fall while trying to escape from testifying, we later see him in a flashback scene recounting how he was present at Mendoza's first "hit" of a café owner. Apparently, Mendoza's murder for hire racket had quite a few customers; when Ferguson has the authorities dredge a swamp where a couple victims were expected to be found, they wound up with an evidence room table filled with the shoes of his victims. That was one of the credibility defying scenes that seemed a little over the top, even though done in understated fashion.With only a few hours to find a way to put Mendoza away for good, Ferguson strains his memory for a possible clue that may have been largely ignored when Rico initially gave himself up. I think they had a song for it - "Don't it make your brown eyes blue".If you can get your hands on this little gem, give it a try. One of Bogie's last films, it holds up well, even though certain elements mentioned earlier mark it as a period piece. For all that, it offers a capable cast that delivers it's story well, amid dingy interrogation rooms and sordid back alleys. Have fun!