Force of Evil, Horrors of the Numbers Racket

Suckers!  You play the lottery thinking you'll win.  Idiot!  You won't.  Or maybe you play so that schools and infrastructure will be funded properly.  Idiot!  Newsflash, you buying a lottery ticket does not go to fix schools or bridges.  The lottery money goes to billionaires so they don't have to pay for their new stadiums.  Or it goes to political hacks earning half million dollar salaries to be school superintendents. You know what the state government calls you when you buy a lottery ticket? Sucker! Back in the day when mobsters ran the numbers game in our cities, there was an honor among thieves...kind of.  Let's look back at those mobster days in 1948's "Force of Evil," directed by Abraham Polonsky.

Joe Morse (John Garfield) is a sleazy, high paid lawyer with an idea.  Him and his client, Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts) see the future and know the state is going to clamp down on the numbers racket. Ben has bribed the right pols and uses Joe to coalesce all the small time hoods to do the numbers under one organization.  Ben will then get state approval and run a state lottery.  Small time hoods hold out because they like the independence and know Ben and the state are just stealing their racket. Joe concocts a scam in which a phony number will come up and drive all the small time hoods out of business.  Joe has an honest thieve brother named Leo (Thomas Gomez) who wants to stay a small time hood independent of big mobsters. Joe pleads with him to be bought off but Leo rebuffs him.  Poor Leo, he will now be raided by the cops every day.  Leo can't keep shop open and is forced to sell.  Leo's nubile secretary Doris (Beatrice Pearson) has no interest in working for the mob, and she quits.

Okay, you guessed it.  Joe kind of likes Doris.  Doris kind of likes Leo.  Unfortunately for Doris, she gets caught up in some of the raids and is now un-hirable because of her arrest record. Add to the turmoil, a rival mobster, Ficco (Paul Fix) makes a move for the new numbers consortium and goes to war against Tucker.  Caught in the middle is Leo and this won't end well.  Joe realizes his work for the local mobsters has dragged him into an abyss of ruination and his world begins falling apart.  Now Joe has to be careful, very careful.  The bullets begin flying, bodies begin dropping, and the numbers rackets slowly becomes the purview of state lotteries.  The handwriting is on the wall for the local mobsters and Joe.

Go ahead play the local lottery.  Just know you are not helping the schools, roads, or hungry children.  You're helping billionaires and political hacks and they are laughing at you.  Will Joe survive to the end credits?  Will Doris be able to forgive Joe for ruining her life?  Which ruined more lives, the local numbers guy, or the state lotteries of today?  See this fine John Garfield film and ask yourself a lot of moral questions.         

Without Warning! Sultry Dames Skewered in LA

I hope you like sultry blonde dames. The good news!  This film has a lot of them.  The bad news!  Most will die horribly at the hands of a ruthless, misogynist maniac.  You divorced guys out there might not share the sorrow most of us will have for these babes.  In a city that has worked tirelessly to figuratively murder beautiful women, one psycho decides to do it literally.  Our feature today is 1952's "Without Warning!" directed by Arnold Laven.

As our film begins Carl (Adam Williams) has just murdered a sultry blonde dame in a motel room.  The married woman was fooling around on her husband and fate, or karma, caught up with her. Carl is a young, strong divorcee who has already murdered another blonde.  He sees blonde babes and feels the need to murder them...go figure. He escapes into the gritty Los Angeles night where finding witnesses is impossible. Pete (Edward Binns) and Don (Harlan Warde) are the two seasoned detectives on the case.  They do a fine job in their investigation and collecting evidence.  The LAPD's crime lab is on display analyzing fibers, fingerprints, saliva and lipstick, and metals.  Carl will be busy.  The gardener uses gardening shears to skewer his babe victims. He'll pick up another blonde floozy in a bar and skewer her.

Carl, as a gardener, frequents Saunders Nursey and sees the sultry blonde Jane (Meg Randall). Jane works there, keeping the books, and pruning plants.  Yep, Jane is a sultry blonde and Carl is always armed with gardening shears. Meanwhile, Don and Pete enlist a dozen sultry blonde policewomen to go undercover and prowl for this guy. They bag a lot of criminals, but not Carl. Smart, and always one step ahead of the cops, Carl puts Jane in his crosshairs. Pete and Don, the police lab, and the department psychiatrist (Robert Shayne) put together some important clues and a good profile. Now the race is on...will the cops get to Carl before he gets to Jane.

Is this film, set in L.A., a metaphor for what happens to sultry dames when they go to Hollywood?  Will Carl murder any policewomen on his way to Jane?  Will the divorced-men community be rooting for the wrong character in this Film Noir crime thriller?  The cheesecake factor is high, though sadly, the dames don't stay cheesy.  For a quasi-slasher film, made 30 years too soon, see "Without Warning!" 

The Pretender, A Shady Trustee and a Nubile Heiress

Men!  All liars!  Cheats, louses, and liars!  All they want is to ravish nubile dames!  One track minds, all of them!  What's a dame to do?  Right!  Date the entire yale football team and string the louses along just in case the A Team hunks don't work out. Wait!  We're getting off track.  Let's take a look at 1947's "The Pretender," a W. Lee Wilder film.

Our film opens on the New York Stock Exchange where Kenneth (Albert Dekker) is losing millions and trying to hide this fact from his nervous clients.  He co-mingles funds and purloins from the funds of wealthy heiress, Claire (Catherine Craig) to pay the more savvy clients.  Claire trusts Kenneth impeccably as he was her dad's best friend. Now Kenneth has to find a way get lots of money.  Right!  He proposes to the nubile Claire...who ends up being a bit of a playgirl. Yep, she's dating just about every player on the Yale football team.  Not wanting to marry the much older Kenneth, she accepts a proposal from a doctor friend, Leonard (Charles Drake)...but Kenneth doesn't know who the guy is.  Now Kenneth has a brilliant idea, hire a hit man to kill Claire's fiancé. That way anyone who Claire decides to marry, who isn't him, Kenneth will have rubbed out.  Genius!  Uh oh...he goes to mobster Victor (Alan Carney) to hire the assassin.  

Not having a name of the fiancé, the assassin is told to watch the society pages and the guy who will soon appear in a photo with Claire will be the mark. What could go wrong? Claire gets mad at Leonard, breaks the engagement, drives over to see Kenneth, and insists he marry her that night. Yep...the newlyweds appear in the society page the next day and the hired killer sees the photo and now has his mark.  Realizing his predicament, Kenneth tries to get Victor to cancel the hit, and will even let him keep the money.  There's a problem, an angry dame (Linda Stirling), who is quite sultry, murders Victor...now Victor won't be cancelling any hits.  Kenneth now lives in fear that the he will be rubbed out. He will fire the servants and not eat.  Claire notices the strange behavior and calls on old flame, Leonard for help.  See where all this is going?

Will Clair be better off with Leonard if Kenneth gets rubbed out?  Are any of the Yale boys the hired assassin?  Who is this angry babe that murdered Victor and might she be the hired gun?  This is a good one and we pull for Claire only because she is quite the dish.  For a tale of twists, ironies, and paradoxes set in New York City, see "The Pretender."  

Miami Expose, Legalized Gambling in Florida!

Horrors!  The Florida legislature is going to consider legalized gambling in their state. If approved, casinos, the numbers racket (state lottery), and sports betting will be on their way. Yep, in 1956, this was big news. Mobsters funneled into the Sunshine State to get a piece of the action, bribe pols and civic leaders, and grab up licenses to begin building these casinos.  Miami was a nice place back in 1956, before legalized gambling took hold.  In 2025, Miami is not a good place.  In an era where every professional sport has been hijacked by gambling apps, and many of the players are on the take, our film today may serve as a nostalgic piece of history to a better time. Let us look at 1956's "Miami Expose," directed by Fred F. Sears.

Organized crime is trying to take over Florida.  Gambling interests (mobsters) from Vegas and Havana are flocking to the state ready to tap into a huge tourist population with a lot of cash. Raymond Sheridan (Alan Napier), one of those mobsters, has a plan.  Bribe politicians, blackmail gambling skeptics, and murder gambling opponents.  Doing this, his assassins leave a witness...the sultry dame wife of some mobster, Lila (Patricia Medina). Detective Bart Scott (Lee J. Cobb) is also on the case when the same peeps murder his captain.  Lila runs to Havana believing she will be killed in Miami. Bart follows and takes her away from her BF Louis (Michael Granger) and brings her up to Miami to testify.  Lila can't take two steps without an attempt on her life, so Bart hides her in a cabin in the Everglades.

Now Bart needs to piece some facts and events together to make a case against Sheridan. Knowing he's a target, too, Bart sends his GF Ann (Eleanor Tanin) and her little boy with Lila to the cabin in the swamp. Brilliant idea...I can just see it, catfight in the swamp!  Could be an early pay-per-view event. The mobsters and assassins are smart and of course will figure out where this cabin is as Bart reacts to carnage and shootings of relevant witnesses and civic leaders.

Will Bart be able to put a case together, and keep witnesses alive, against Sheridan?  Will Lila and Ann rip off one another's blouses, pull the other's hair, and scratch at the other's eyes while rolling around the swamp mud?  In 2025, would a public safety crusader like Detective Bart Scott be considered a puritanical villain?  How times have changed, but anyone who lives in Miami will tell you about the crime and murder rate and the vice that has conquered that city.  See "Miami Expose" and take it as a warning of who ultimately controls the gambling that even permeates your smart phone.  

Jail Bait, Two Thugs and a Plastic Surgeon

Not a particularly good film, but interesting nonetheless. See, it is by the same guy who made "Plan 9 from Outer Space." It also has the guy from all those Hercules films. The acting is sensational...okay, not really.  But!  There are no strings holding up UFOs in this one.  Our feature today is the 1954 "Jail Bait," directed by Edward J. Wood, Jr.

The beautiful Marilyn (Dolores Fuller) bails her brother Don (Clancy Malone) out of jail as the film begins. He possessed a gun without a license.  We are told the unlicensed gun is mere "jail bait." Okay, not what we were hoping.  Marilyn is disappointed in her brother who is headed for a serious life of crime.  The two cops on the case, Inspector Johns (Lyle Talbot) and the hunk he-man Lt. Bob Lawrence (Steve Reeves) let Don know that more serious days are ahead as long as he hangs out with the known criminal, Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell). Also disappointed in Don is his dad, the plastic surgeon, Dr. Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson). He's a skilled plastic surgeon and loves his son. Though Hercules and Insp. Johns kept the unlicensed gun, Don finds a new one and rejoins Vic for a big job.

The big job? Vic and Don knock off a theater after closing.  The security guard resists and Don shoots him.  Vic shoots a fleeing, sultry dame (Mona McKinnon) in the back, but she lives and will be able to identify Vic and also Don as the murderer. The duo go to Loretta's (Tedi Thurman) apartment.  She is a sultry dame who always looks stylish, holds a gun nicely, and will don a really alluring evening gown. What happens next will be shocking, if not well acted, and provide for a Rod Serling type of ending. You'll see.

Will Hercules take the evening gown-clad Loretta in his arms and kiss her like a girl has never been kissed before?  Will Marilyn and Dr. Gregor be doubly disappointed in Don after he murders the security guard? Will Vic double-cross Don and turn him in for the murder in exchange for leniency for himself?  The dames in this one are dangerous, the cops are huge (at least the Hercules one is), and the irony is biting.  Enjoy the Ed Wood Film Noir film and compare it to the timeless and campy "Plan 9 from Outer Space."    

Saigon, Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in Vietnam

Five years after their first collab, the hottest Hollywood duo in history, Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, exude sexual energy again.  Today's film industry has no one like Veronica Lake, and this is sad. The last half century in moviemaking certainly lacks alluring and talented female leads.  Having spent time in southeast Asia and Vietnam, I can attest to the amount of sweat a man can lose.  The presence of Veronica Lake in this setting would have been almost unfair.  Our feature today is 1947's "Saigon," directed by Leslie Fenton.  This is an extremely hard film to find, but if you do, it is a must watch.

The war has just ended. Major Larry Briggs (Ladd) has just received some awful news from an army doctor.  His captain, Mike (Douglas Dick) will die from his head injuries within 60 days.  Larry tells the doctor not to tell him as the good major will tell Mike in his own way.  His own way?  Not tell him, but make sure Mike's last 60 days are crammed with 100 years worth of a happy life. Enter Veronica Lake as Susan. Susan is the "secretary" for a crime lord named Alex Maris (Morris Carovsky). In reality, she is probably more than just a secretary. Alex pays Mike and his bomber crew $10K to fly him from Shanghai to Saigon. A gunfight with the cops makes Alex miss the flight but Susan arrives carrying Alex' briefcase of hot loot. Mike takes to Susan immediately, as do we.  Larry and his sergeant, Pete (Wally Cassell) know her for what she is...a mobster's toy.

The airplane is junk and crash lands short of Saigon. There a French cop, Lt. Keon (Arthur Adler) realizes this surviving quartet is quite suspicious. Larry has an idea...he blackmails Susan, and takes her briefcase of loot. The deal, he won't turn her into the cops if she makes Mike's last days on Earth happy. Susan has no choice but does a great job.  Mike is full of goodness and Susan knows she is just a mobster's toy. She falls for him but knows Mike has fallen in love with a lie.  Uh oh...Susan falls for Larry. Mike speeds toward death and he has no idea that that is his prognosis.  He proposes to Susan.  Lt. Keon gets closer to arresting Susan.  Mike falls more in love with Susan.  Even worse...homicide and gunfights will invade the plot.

Will Susan end up with Larry or be the toy of other female prisoners in a Vietnamese jail?  Is there a medical miracle in the plot for Mike?  Will Susan end up like many a mobster's girlfriends end up? Veronica Lake gives a sultry performance and the scenes when she is clad in the white evening gown are a testament to what allure and seduction are.  For a great Film Noir film set in the gritty streets of Shanghai and Saigon, see "Saigon," if you can find it.