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. However, I've seen too many crime films. At one point the witness stood right in front of a window, and another time stuck his head out a window to get some air. And everyone is terrified this guy is going to be killed.
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.
