This pseudo-documentary style film failed to disguise the disjointedness of it's narrative. This case history of a crime begins in the great outdoors. It was filmed in Clorado Royal Gorge Park. A sick young boy with asthma runs away from camp after being scared by the nurse at the camp (a young Felicia Farr who made her feature debut with this film as Randy Farr) The boy is 'helped' by a strange man (Ralph Meeker) who then kidnaps him and proceeds to blackmail the boy's wealthy father.But then the the boy accidentally dies in a fall from a condemned forest lookout tower where the man had put him. It's a very disturbing scene as Meeker finds the dead boy and he remains ice cold and callously just throws the dead boy over a cliff of rocks below. And because the body id never found, Meeker can only be convicted on a extortion charge.
The story then shifts gears entirely turning to prison drama which was filmed at the Cascabel Island facility. The plot now focuses on four cutthroat convicts: Broderick Crawford, William Talman, Lon Chaney Jr., and a young, super ripped muscle bound Charles Bronson. With the "extortionist" now called the "Ice Man" because of his stone cold stare and demeanor, is thrown in with them. A breakout is planned, of course, with their target the hidden $200,000 ransom money Meeker hid away before being arrested. The escape is successful but their is a falling-out among them and two gang members are killed. A gun battle ensues with the remaining gang and one more is killed and the remaining are arrested once again.
All in all not a great film but what a great cast of convicts! Especially Bronson stood out. After his big breakout role opposite Alan Ladd in "Drum Beat" a year before, Bronson was relegated to the sort of supporting 'heavy' roles he had done so often before in this black-and-white supporting feature. As in "My Six Convicts", his tough physiognomy lends itself well to the inside of a prison. But director Howard W. Koch and scriptwriter John C. Higgins gave him the short end of the stick by killing Bronson off once the prison escape had been effected. His death is a grisly one also. Crawford orders Talman to use a blowtorch on Bronson's face and fingers to obliterate any means of identification in a effort to distract the police. All in all , I had never seen Bronson so 'cut' in muscularity. I bet that for the time , 1955, the was not a single body builder at that time with a ripped torso that Bronson presented in this film. Had he been competing , I bet he would have been winning like crazy. Bronson had muscles on top of muscles!
I was so glad to finally see this film. What a great and tremendous cast. The characters were depicted very brutal as to anesthetized all sympathy and their savagery is minutely explored by the director Koch, in a manner that leaves one shocked yet disinterested. The melodrama provides a fair amount of entertainment, plenty of violence is featured throughout in some rather chilling scenes but it fits the tough characters involved with which the story deals. Meeker did a great job as a cold-blooded crook nicknamed "The Iceman" by Crawford. Talman , Chaney and especially Bronson made great members of Crawford's gang.
The story then shifts gears entirely turning to prison drama which was filmed at the Cascabel Island facility. The plot now focuses on four cutthroat convicts: Broderick Crawford, William Talman, Lon Chaney Jr., and a young, super ripped muscle bound Charles Bronson. With the "extortionist" now called the "Ice Man" because of his stone cold stare and demeanor, is thrown in with them. A breakout is planned, of course, with their target the hidden $200,000 ransom money Meeker hid away before being arrested. The escape is successful but their is a falling-out among them and two gang members are killed. A gun battle ensues with the remaining gang and one more is killed and the remaining are arrested once again.
All in all not a great film but what a great cast of convicts! Especially Bronson stood out. After his big breakout role opposite Alan Ladd in "Drum Beat" a year before, Bronson was relegated to the sort of supporting 'heavy' roles he had done so often before in this black-and-white supporting feature. As in "My Six Convicts", his tough physiognomy lends itself well to the inside of a prison. But director Howard W. Koch and scriptwriter John C. Higgins gave him the short end of the stick by killing Bronson off once the prison escape had been effected. His death is a grisly one also. Crawford orders Talman to use a blowtorch on Bronson's face and fingers to obliterate any means of identification in a effort to distract the police. All in all , I had never seen Bronson so 'cut' in muscularity. I bet that for the time , 1955, the was not a single body builder at that time with a ripped torso that Bronson presented in this film. Had he been competing , I bet he would have been winning like crazy. Bronson had muscles on top of muscles!
I was so glad to finally see this film. What a great and tremendous cast. The characters were depicted very brutal as to anesthetized all sympathy and their savagery is minutely explored by the director Koch, in a manner that leaves one shocked yet disinterested. The melodrama provides a fair amount of entertainment, plenty of violence is featured throughout in some rather chilling scenes but it fits the tough characters involved with which the story deals. Meeker did a great job as a cold-blooded crook nicknamed "The Iceman" by Crawford. Talman , Chaney and especially Bronson made great members of Crawford's gang.