Burt Lancaster & Hume Cronyn in Jules Dassin's "Brute Force" (1947) - screenplay by Richard Brooks
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- Опубликовано: 19 сен 2024
- On a dark, rainy morning at Westgate Prison, prisoners cram into a small cell to watch through the window as Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) returns from his term in solitary confinement. Joe is angry and talks about escape. The beleaguered Warden, A.J. Barnes (Roman Bohnen), is under pressure to improve discipline. His chief of security, Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn), is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform on one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment. The often drunk prison Doctor, Walters (Art Smith), warns that the prison is a powder keg and will explode if they are not careful. He denounces Munsey's approach and complains that the public and government officials fail to understand the need for rehabilitation.
Joe's Lawyer (Howland Chamberlain) visits and tells Joe his wife Ruth (Ann Blyth) is not willing to have an operation for cancer unless Joe can be there with her. He takes his revenge on fellow inmate Wilson (James O'Rear), who at Munsey's instigation had planted a weapon on Joe that earned him a stay in solitary. Joe has organized a fatal attack on Wilson in the prison machine shop but provides himself with an alibi by talking with the Doctor in his office while the murder occurs.
Joe presses another inmate, Gallagher (Charles Bickford), to help him escape but Gallagher has a good job at the prison newspaper and Munsey has promised him parole soon. Munsey then instigates a prisoner's suicide, giving higher authorities the opportunity to revoke all prisoner privileges and cancel parole hearings. Gallagher feels betrayed and decides to join Joe's escape plan. Joe and Gallagher plan an assault on the guard tower where they can get access to the lever that lowers a bridge that controls access to the prison.
While the escape plan is taking shape, each of the inmates in cell R17 tells their story, and in every case, their love for a woman is what landed them in trouble with the law. Munsey learns the details of the escape plan from an informer, "Freshman" Stack (Jeff Corey), one of the men in cell R17, and the break goes badly. The normally subdued prison yard turns into a violent and bloody riot, killing Munsey, Gallagher, and the remainder of the inmates in cell R17, including Joe. The doctor breaks the fourth wall by commenting on the pain, futility and impossibility of escaping the system that imprisons all of them.
A 1947 American Black & White film-noir crime thriller film (a/k/a "Zelle R 17") directed by Jules Dassin, produced by Mark Hellinger, screenplay by Richard Brooks, story by Robert Patterson, cinematography by William H. Daniels, starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, Ella Raines, Sam Levene, Jeff Corey, John Hoyt, Jack Overman, Roman Bohnen, Sir Lancelot, Vince Barnett, Jay C. Flippen, Richard Gaines, Frank Puglia, James Bell, Art Smith, and Whit Bissell. Screen debut appearance of Howard Duff. Final screen appearance of Anita Colby.
Four cast members, Burt Lancaster, Sam Levene, Jeff Corey and Charles McGraw, had all appeared in "The Killers" (1946), a year earlier.
Music by Miklós Rózsa.
The second of three films that Burt Lancaster made for Mark Hellinger, the writer-producer who discovered the former acrobat and turned him into a movie star. The first of these was "The Killers (1946)" and the three-picture contract was completed with "Criss Cross (1949)," a film Hellinger never lived to see, as he died before production began. His widow insisted that Lancaster honor the contract he had with her husband.
The direct inspiration for the unremitting desperate violence was the recent "Battle of Alcatraz" (May 2-4, 1946) in which prisoners fought a hopeless two-day battle rather than surrender in the aftermath of a failed escape attempt.
This was among several noir films made by Dassin during the postwar period. The others were "Thieves' Highway" (1949), "Night and the City" (1950) and "The Naked City" (1948).
This caused quite a stir in 1947, shocking audiences with its levels of violence. The climax displayed the most harrowing violence ever seen in movie theaters at that time.
The inmates were watching "The Egg and I" (1947), also an Aug 1947 "Universal" release, making it a movie 'trailer' within the movie.
The unsettling "calendar girl" everywoman the inmates have pinned up in their cell was painted by John Decker, who, among other things, did the paintings in Fritz Lang's "Scarlet Street" (1945). It was painted as a composite of all the female characters in the film. It features one or two facial characteristics from each one of them. Therefore when each man looks at it, it does actually resemble his loved one.
The point hammered home in this hard-hitting but outdated crime drama is that the prison system reflects the values of society, as Dassin castigates society for creating and then turning a blind eye toward the brutality and insensitivity of a prison system that offers no chance for rehabilitation.
Never thought a film that old could excite me so much. Great movie. Thanks for the upload!
Seen this a few times over the years and still enjoy watching it. Tku for post.
That Hume Cronyn had the 'small man complex!'
Two movies about convicts.....I feel like you know more about me than....er...
Thanks, DPB!
IKR- we call it Little Man Syndrome. Psychos that know they are inferior should never be given power. As a Female Marine, they usually despise me and most women. I'm tall enough to stand toe-to-toe and look down on them, which usually causes them to make an ass of themselves. Problem solved-lol.
With Jules Dassin and Richard Brooks doing it, you can hardly go wrong.
The title is certainly accurate: there's brutality here so vivid it still shocks and stuns today. (And this was 1947, a movie year that also gave us Tyrone Power becoming a carnival "geek" and Richard Widmark pushing an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs! Good thing it also had Miracle on 34th Street for the squeamish!) Incredible suspense, wonderfully grungy cinematography by William Daniels, pounding Miklos Rosza music, great use of ”girl back home" flashbacks, effective underplaying, especially by Burt Lancaster and a prison official (Hume Cronyn) so evil he makes Shawshank's warden look like...uh...Andy Dufresne make this the definitive prison movie of the 1940s (hell, the 30s and 50s too) and it wasn't even released by Warner Bros.! It's unrelentingly bleak but beautifully done and endlessly compelling. Or, as Calypso (Sir Lancelot) might sing: "A jailhouse movie that leaves plenty of scars/ It'll make you feel like YOU'RE behind bars!". 10/10.
SPOILER ALERT!!
Pretty solid early Dassin noir. I think most will like it and find it exciting.
In the beginning the dialog seemed stilted and there was some lumpy (although well intentioned) social conscious commentary about prisons. It sounded forced and unnatural to me. The prison scenes seemed realistic and when the action escape scenes started to unfurl the film got lively and was good. Overall the acting was fine. When I first saw this film many years ago I wondered if Hume Cronyn was miscast. But I've come around to think his casting against type was a excellent choice, giving the film a classic noir touch.
The final scene where Dr. Walters turns to the camera and says something like Why do they always try to escape, it never works I thought was bizarre and gratuitous.
Well worth watching for noir and prison escape fans.
ya dirty screws! Gosh I never knew Hoyt had such a build. We were all tough once. pretty much
A cinematic masterpiece.
Where are the credits? Please don't erase the credits, they're part of the film. I'll wait to see this film until I can see the original, uncut version.
IMDb, but he should have included them here as most film channels do.
What happened to the title sequence?
Silly excision.
Great movie
he was really handsome, probably the handsomest actor along John Garfield
Question first: At 1:15:34, WHAT is the blob in the photo on the wall???
Good post! I loved seeing Hume Cronyn in a starring role for a change. The cast is studded with so many familiar stars- a real treat to see (a cast of search is always surprising). 3 famous women, too. TY for this one!
That man Jules…!
Fiction and truth are closely related .
@59:03, this is the 2nd time John Hoyt displays his "manly chest" in this flick. Caused me to wonder if he was a nancy-boy.
You should have been using your time for self-reflection...😊🙃
Great story...annoying singer!
That annoying singer is a VERY famous calypso artist named Sir Lancelot. He appeared in a few Hollywood films, most notably in the masterpiece I Walked with a Zombie where he played a crucial role and sang two songs. His scenes are truly chilling and memorable!! Also, for that film, he composed a VERY famous song called Shame and Scandal in the Family. (It has many alternate titles) The song has been covered many many times by different singers down through the years with chart success. Peter Tosh, singing lead with The wailers, did a rousing ska version of this classic song. You can hear on RUclips Lancelot's 78 rpm recording of the original.
He almost made it to 100, dying in 2001.@@willieluncheonette5843