Several of the toughest inmates in a Colorado state penitentiary near Canon City (pronounced 'Canyon City') are planning a getaway. They include Jeff Corey and Whit Bissell, both serving time in solitary. One of the inmates tries to get Scott Brady to join them, but he refuses. However, after hearing he won't be up for parole for another 10 years, he gives in. The group of 12 men manage to escape, and end up in a snowstorm. They split up and take several families hostage in search of guns, food and cars, while the authorities try to capture them.
Apparently based on an actual prison break that happened a year earlier from that same prison, the movie even includes the actual warden as himself! Starting off with the authoritarian voice-over of Reed Hadley, the voice-over then becomes the (unseen) interviewer of the warden, which was weird to say the least. The first 20 minutes or so of the movie also includes several interviews with actual inmates, as well as actual prison life footage. Quite interesting, esp a long-time inmate (50 years!) who said he didn't want to be released anymore, as he had nothing outside to live for.
Once the movie really starts, it moves at a rapid pace. Breaking out of prison seemed pretty easy tho, which makes you wonder why the warden looked so smug in the intro?! In any case, as the split up groups of escapees invade several homes, the movie becomes quite suspenseful. The tensest scenes are those where Corey ('Follow Me Quietly') is inside the home of an elderly couple, and the wife, Mabel Paige, tries to knock him down using a hammer. Brady ('He Walked By Night') in his first big role, is depicted as a stand-up guy who made a mistake once. He prevents a fellow inmate from raping a teenage girl, and later on allows a family to take their son to hospital for an appendix surgery. It's a bit too good to be true but I didn't mind it too much. Even the moralizing end of the movie isn't too overdone.
The movie was directed by Crane Wilbur, who directed/wrote a couple of prison movies around this time including 'Outside The Wall'. He does pretty well here, aided by a lot of location shooting in and around the prison. The cinematography by noir legend John Alton is decent and occasionally even inspired, but this is far from his best work. There are way better prison noirs out there, and this one's just noir-ish really, but it's entertaining and the intro offers a bit of a glimpse into 40s prison life. 6/10
Apparently based on an actual prison break that happened a year earlier from that same prison, the movie even includes the actual warden as himself! Starting off with the authoritarian voice-over of Reed Hadley, the voice-over then becomes the (unseen) interviewer of the warden, which was weird to say the least. The first 20 minutes or so of the movie also includes several interviews with actual inmates, as well as actual prison life footage. Quite interesting, esp a long-time inmate (50 years!) who said he didn't want to be released anymore, as he had nothing outside to live for.
Once the movie really starts, it moves at a rapid pace. Breaking out of prison seemed pretty easy tho, which makes you wonder why the warden looked so smug in the intro?! In any case, as the split up groups of escapees invade several homes, the movie becomes quite suspenseful. The tensest scenes are those where Corey ('Follow Me Quietly') is inside the home of an elderly couple, and the wife, Mabel Paige, tries to knock him down using a hammer. Brady ('He Walked By Night') in his first big role, is depicted as a stand-up guy who made a mistake once. He prevents a fellow inmate from raping a teenage girl, and later on allows a family to take their son to hospital for an appendix surgery. It's a bit too good to be true but I didn't mind it too much. Even the moralizing end of the movie isn't too overdone.
The movie was directed by Crane Wilbur, who directed/wrote a couple of prison movies around this time including 'Outside The Wall'. He does pretty well here, aided by a lot of location shooting in and around the prison. The cinematography by noir legend John Alton is decent and occasionally even inspired, but this is far from his best work. There are way better prison noirs out there, and this one's just noir-ish really, but it's entertaining and the intro offers a bit of a glimpse into 40s prison life. 6/10