Force of Evil

Force of Evil is a 1948 American film noir starring John Garfield as lawyer Joe Morse, who works for powerful gangster Ben Tucker. Tucker plans to consolidate and gain control over the numbers racket in New York City by rigging the winning number to 776 on the Fourth of July, allowing him to take over. Joe visits his estranged brother Leo, played by Thomas Gomez, a small-time bank operator, to persuade him to partner with Tucker, but Leo rejects the offer as blackmail. The film follows Joe's attempts to navigate the moral complexities of his own involvement in the racket and his relationships with those around him, including Doris Lowry (Beatrice Pearson) and Edna Tucker (Marie Windsor).