One of those post-war let’s-be-hard-hitting-and-realistic films, with a plot that became cliché in the 1930s (sadistic prison guards, drunken doctor, reformist intentions, prison break finale) livened up by some location shooting, new faces (including Howard Duff, Jeff Corey), new star (Burt Lancaster), new-ish screenwriter (Richard Brooks) and director (Jules Dassin). Very entertaining.
Despite Lancaster’s presence this is more of an ensemble piece – we flash back to several of the prisoners’ stories. None of them are truly bad apples - basically they’re all in there because of women (incluing Ann Blyth, Ella Raines and Yvonne de Carlo), who either betray them, commit the crimes (and the guys take the rap), or inspire them. Lancaster has a girlfriend in a wheelchair for crying out loud (and unlike the club foot girl in High Sierra this one is a nice piece of work).
There are some brilliant sequences, particularly the murder of a stool pigeon in a workshop and the camaraderie of prisoners (refusing to give evidence, their conversations) is well conveyed, as are the politics among the people who run the prison (the weak warden, drunk doctor, conniving guards). I also enjoyed the final nihilistic escape sequence.
Best performance is from Hume Cronyn as a seemingly benign but actually terrifying prison guard but the cast is excellent all round - also Charles Bickford, Whit Bissell, John Hoyt.
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