SnoopyStyle It's the overcrowded tough Westgate Penitentiary. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is the hard-nosed guard who actually runs the prison. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) refuses to bend to his will. He's let out of solitary after getting set up by Munsey. Joe's wife Ruth is unwilling to get an operation for cancer without Joe being there. He has a plan to escape.The prison movie has been done all the time. This is an early brutal vision of incarceration. The flashbacks of various prisoners are unnecessary and distracting. In fact, most of the flashbacks can be eliminated. Prison is a tough place where there is little hope. Lancaster and Cronyn serve as good foils and it has an action packed battle in the end.

rooee Jules Dassin is best remembered for his seminal heist movie Rififi, which he made in Europe following his Hollywood blacklisting. Before this, in the immediate postwar period, this American director made a series of high-quality noir films on the other side of the pond, one of which was this bold prison break drama from 1947.The plot focuses on Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) and the inmates of intimate cell R17. Sick of their ill treatment by the cruel Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn), and conscious of the impotence of Chief Barnes (Roman Bohnen) as well as the hopelessness of decent-yet-drunk Doctor Walters (Art Smith), they plan to take matters into their own hands, overthrow the governance, and escape.The film earns its title. This is a brutal, bleak, and violent yarn by the standards of any era. But it was particularly shocking at the time – not least, perhaps, because it sets aside the basic crime-doesn't-pay moral and asks the audience to sympathise wholly with the prisoners and hate the guards. This is achieved by portraying the prisoners as plucky underdogs. No trashy exploitation here, but something closer to the conscientious social outrage of Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. Lancaster's performance doesn't approach Brando, but the style is similarly smouldering. Repressed rage; the power of the trodden man waiting to be unleashed.The theme of power is personified by Munsey. "Kindness is actually weakness," is his mantra. Hume Cronyn is gloriously slimy in the role. Munsey is the most complex character, embodying the dangerously contained ambitions of the middle manager. Meanwhile, Doc Walters reckons the prison system is inherently flawed; that men emerge more broken than when they arrived. Then there's Overlord Barnes, weary and anxious and without strategy, responding to mass unrest by threatening to withdraw privileges from all, suppressing the inmates' individuality from the distant comfort of his office. The prison is run by this dysfunctional trio. No wonder a breakout is imminent.The good guys are the chums of R17. Some are embellished in flashback. There's the tragic story of the man – reminiscent of poor cuckolded George Peatty in Kubrick's The Killing – who steals three grand to buy his materialistic wife a fur coat. Another wound up in the slammer after taking the rap when his wife shot her father dead to save their marriage. It's all melodramatic; all about trouble with women; all great black 'n' white storytelling with a few shades of grey. As for Joe, his gal needs an operation to fix her crippled legs, but she's not going for the operation until he's out. We get to see the sentimentality behind the main man's stony façade.So, R17 is populated by lovable rogues and victims of circumstance. The rawness of Dassin's picture – its relative naturalism for the time – ensures that the setup isn't hopelessly idealised, but it is certainly romanticized, which is something that's matched by the rich aesthetic. The film looks glorious. The external sets are plausibly looming and stark, recalling the Expressionist roots upon which noir was built. The drama is frequently shot from awkward angles, giving the sense of confined spaces and enhancing the releasing power of the flashbacks. It's memory that sets the men free.Finally, there is genuine tension and excitement in the final breakout sequence. Its violence is earned and its outcome is startling. It's a fittingly intense climax to a film that grips early and tight and doesn't let go. This is persuasive, fierce filmmaking.

jpdoherty Universal International's BRUTE FORCE is without doubt one of the finest prison pictures ever made. Outstandingly directed by Jules Dassin this brutal brooding and dark drama, has never been, or is ever likely to be, equaled. Produced for the studio in 1947 by Mark Hellinger the stunning black & white cinematography by William Daniels, together with his amazing use of light and shade, perfectly highlighted the bleak grimness of being shut away on the "inside" where injury and death lurks from every crevice of the thick walls. Based on a story by Robert Patterson it was turned into a brilliant screenplay by Richard Brooks and composer Miklos Rozsa once again supplied one of his high octane tension filled scores.Hardened convict Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) is a "lifer" in the maximum security prison of Westgate Penitentiary. Together with his old boss Gallagher (Charles Bickford) - who is also doing time as the prison's newspaper editor - he plans an elaborate escape. But tyrannical head guard Captain Munsey (a brilliant Hume Cronyn) suspects a breakout is afoot and will go to any lengths to prevent it. In one intensely harrowing sequence in his office he interrogates inmate Louie Miller (Sam Levene) about the impending escape and savagely beats him with a hosepipe as Wagner's Tannhauser plays full volume on the phonograph. But Louie endures and tells him nothing. However through another informant Munsey learns the date and time of the escape and prepares his guards accordingly to thwart the breakout. With Collins getting even with the "stoolie" the picture ends in a bloody and vicious battle between the guards and convicts with many deaths on each side including Collins and Munsey who have it out in a climactic and spectacular fight atop the gate tower.The acting is nothing short of superb! In only his second movie (after Hellinger's "The Killers" the previous year) Lancaster is especially good as the recalcitrant and difficult Collins ("You're not fit for civil life and you won't accept prison life" Munsey chides him.) Good too is Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen as the weak and ineffectual Warden and really excellent is Art Smith as the kindly but perpetually hammered prison doctor ("Yes Capt. Munsey - I'm just a very ordinary man. I get drunk on whiskey but you sir - you get drunk on power".) But there's little doubt the picture belongs to Cronyn. In a powerful portrayal of the highest degree he simply chews up every bit of scenery there is as the sadistic and dictatorial Captain Munsey. Also of note is the score by the great Miklos Rozsa. Almost eclipsing his music for "The Killers" his brooding score here pinpoints the seediness and the ever present potential for danger and death within the prison. His sombre main theme, heard in its broadest rendition under the titles, is a slow dirge-like piece reflecting the despair and hopelessness of those incarcerated in a high security establishment. BRUTE FORCE is one of the composer's best noir scores.The picture only has one drawback - the various and needless flashbacks depicting the women in some of the prisoner's lives. These scenes are merely padding and quiet unnecessary. They do nothing really for the movie except break the atmospheric continuity that already had been so well achieved and established. But thankfully they don't last very long and they make up what is only a minor quibble and does not prevent BRUTE FORCE remaining one of the finest gems from Hollywood's golden past.

Michael O'Keefe Gritty and intense prison drama. Joe Collins(Burt Lancaster)is one of the toughest inmates on the cell block. Gallagher(Charles Bickford)is the old-timer that has the most control of the ways of life in the over crowded West Gate Prison. Warden Barnes(Roman Bohnen)is a drunkard and political pawn. The real power belongs to Capt. Munsey(Hume Cronyn), a crass, cruel and corrupt prison guard running roughshod over the inmate population. Munsey is planning to take over the warden's job; at the same time Collins has had enough and plans to make a break. He garners support of his cell mates, but Gallagher isn't so sure. Munsey finds out about the plans of the prison break and sets up guards to stop it, with Collins the prime target for a bullet or two. Munsey puts the fix in to delay Gallagher's parole; so the savvy prisoner decides to join Collins' escape attempt. A very violent finale with a good measure of brute force. Howard Duff makes his big screen debut. Other players: Ann Blyth, Yvonne De Carlo, Vince Barnett, Whit Bissell, James Bell, Jeff Corey, Edmond O'Brien, John Hoyt and Sir Lancelot.