User Reviews

Big House U.S.A. (1955)

This is quite a surprise. At first you are lulled into thinking we're in an ordinary crime drama: a rich kid is kidnapped from a Colorado mountain summer camp. A ransom is demanded, the kidnapper, working alone, is caught for a different crime and thrown in jail. All of this takes awhile to happen and is pretty interesting, especially set out in the big landscape and bright air of the Rockies.

But then our main character finds himself in a jail cell with some hardened thugs. This is where any movie lover will sit up. Listen to the cast of characters.

Broderick Crawford, who plays loud and brash characters as good as anyone, and who is sharp as a whip here, the gangleader and intellectual.

Ralph Meeker, the man who played Mike Hammer in the following year's "Kiss Me Deadly" and is a good hardened criminal.

William Talman, most memorable in Ida Lupino's "The Hitchhiker" as the sinister kidnapper with one eye which stayed open even when he slept, and here plays an equally cold and brutal type.

Lon Chaney (this would be Lon Chaney Jr. of course) who continued his career are "Wolfman" in roles demanding his broad nice guy quality that here gets twisted since he's also a thug.

Charles Bronson, yes, whose big fame was still ahead ("Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape") and who appears here without his shirt on, of course (he's ripped).

The rest of the movie follows these men as they escape, audaciously, and begin to rip into each other in an effort to find the hidden ransom money.

There are a few stumbles and improbable turns here, but it's all done with such high stakes energy it really works. The one wet blanket on the whole thing is the overlay the producers add to the plot giving credit to the police forces who intrepidly solve the crime (the F.B.I. in particular), almost as if a government mandate.

But never mind the drawbacks. If you watch this for its inventive energy and cast of characters, you'll be amazed. I'd watch it twice, even with the sometimes clunky direction. It's that fun.

Meeker kidnaps a kid, but kid dies in an accident so Meeker tosses him into a 1,000 foot deep rugged Gorge but manages to get $200k ransom which he stashes. He gets caught and sent to a BIG HOUSE on a fakey looking island in the USA. His cell-mates are: Broderick Crawford, chess playing chief mastermind, Lon Chaney Jr., lovable loony who reads romance magazines, Charles Bronson, ever shirtless and bulging with greased up muscles(reading muscle magazines) and William Talman (Perry Masons own D.A., Hamilton Burger) They are about to escape. They kidnap the kidnapper to make him take them to the ransom money. After the escape Crawford makes Talman bash Bronson's brains in and blow torch his body. Then Crawford shoots Chaney Jr. This leaves Meeker to lead Crawford & Talman to the ransom loot. When they get to the stash, they conk Meeker on the noggin but now the Park Rangers and F.B.I. ambush them. Talman get shot about twenty seven times by the F.B.I guy and Crawford gives himself up, sniveling like a baby. The coward. Voice-over says Crawford & Meeker get nuked in the BIG HOUSE. This is a kidnap story but I guess BIG HOUSE, USA sounds more fun than KIDNAP, USA. The flick is fun. You won't hate it, nor will you insist on getting back the time you spent watching it.

Some brilliant actors inhabit this "B" crime melodrama from the mid 50's. This independent film simply adds "USA" to the title (minus "The") of the 1930 prison movie that was way ahead of its time in its depiction of prison violence. That film, along with "Brute Force", remains a classic in the genre of life-after-crime films. This film, however, doesn't have that reputation. It is, however, the genesis of a crime, here a kidnapping gone wrong, that results in the criminal (Ralph Meeker) gaining the nickname "Ice Man" in prison for his cold demeanor in the way he denies having seen the victim, sadly an 8 year old boy he kept hidden while trying to extort money from his wealthy father.

Like child molesters, kidnappers of children in prison are considered the lowest of the low, and in this case, Meeker's cell-mates (Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson) ostracize him immediately. But knowing he has ransom money stashed away, they decide to include him in on their escape plans, with the intention of killing him once he leads them to it. This leads them back to the scene of the original crime where there is a sad, ironic conclusion that is unfortunately still too real in crime solving.

All of the actors are excellent, even if they are playing totally despicable people. The prison scenes don't begin until half way through the film even though Crawford is top-billed. Meeker is really the focus of the film. There are some genuine horrifying visuals, especially the fate of the asthmatic 8 year old. This is not for ultra-sensitive movie viewers. It is interesting to note that Bronson, pretty much shirtless in his entire time on screen, has a physically amazing torso. Crawford and Chaney's characters are pretty interchangeable. Like most crime dramas or 50's film noir, the film has the typical documentary-like narration that by this time was totally clichéd. The result is a gripping but ultimately depressing film that will leave the viewer speechless.

Loosely inspired by a real life case, this gritty little film documents the fate of a ne'er do well drifter who seizes the opportunity to make money off the disappearance of a wealthy child. Meeker plays the stoic (and uncomfortably good-looking) extortionist who locates a missing boy only to hole him up in a condemned ranger station while he attempts to milk $200,000 from the boy's panicked father Bouchey. Bouchey does everything he's told, in an effort to spare his sick wife from even knowing about the boy's ordeal, but it's all for naught when Meeker is caught, but the boy isn't retrieved. Meeker is convicted of extortion (not kidnapping!) and sent to the Big House where he's confronted with some unfriendly cellmates. Crawford is the burly ringleader, Chaney is the more sensitive, lunkheaded one, Bronson is an antagonistic muscle man and Talman is a skittish follower. All of them wish to escape and when they find out that Meeker has some ransom money hidden on the outside, they decide to drag him along with them so they can split it up! They bust out via a fairly elaborately constructed tunnel, but that's hardly the end of their problems. Meeker does a very solid job in a film with few, if any heroes. It's disconcerting for the viewer to see a nice-looking man resorting to some of the things he does here. Crawford, top-billed though he takes quite a while to show up, is savvy and ruthless (and, unfortunately, shows off far more chest that Meeker does!) Talman, infamous as the constant nemesis of "Perry Mason", and Chaney don't get a lot of screen time, but handle what they get effectively. Bronson is rock hard and frequently shirtless, revealing an impressive figure for 1955, a time when most men rarely worked out to that degree. Jack Lemmon's future wife, Farr, amusingly billed as "Randy", plays a nurse. Votrian portrays the little rich boy and it's not without amusement, though there's residual guilt in laughing at someone whose fate is so horrifying. He starts off with a persistent cough, intended to be an asthma attack and can't ever stop hacking UNTIL he has a line, during which he's perfectly fine! This occurs several times. He also has a jaw-dropping hysterical scene when Farr attempts to give him a shot. Saddled with an overbite and toothpick legs jutting out of the planet's shortest shorts, he's a gangly mess and is agonizingly annoying. Still, no one likes to think of any child receiving this type of treatment. This film should really have had a different title since only a small portion of it takes place behind bars. It's a startlingly brutal piece of movie-making for its time with a couple of really rough deaths including a bad fall, a broiling in a steam tank and a hammer to the head, followed by a face-roasting via a flame gun! The worst thing is the horrendous and almost completely unnecessary voice-over narration supplied by Hadley as an FBI agent. It's one of those terrible things in which the events depicted clearly on screen are described by a dry, stony voice when viewers simply could have watched it themselves. One great thing is the use of outdoor locations and the assemblage of interesting cast members. It's certainly worth the 83 minutes it takes to watch it!

***SPOILERS*** Even though the movie "Big House U.S.A" runs for a scant 83 minutes it seems like well over two hours watching it and all the side plots that's in it. In fact we never get to see the big man or top star Braderick Crawford, the psycho as well as wimpy sadist killer Rollo Lamar, until almost halfway into the film.

The story starts with good natured fisherman Jerry Baker, Ralph Meeker, giving a hand to this runaway boy Danny Lambert, Peter J. Votrian, who checked out of camp when he was about to be giving an injection for his serious asthma condition. As it turned Baker was on to little Danny in that his dad Mr. Lambert, Willis Bouchey, being one of the riches men in the state of Colorado. Holding little Danny hostage for a ransom of $200,000.00 Baker makes the mistake in leaving the kid alone in this dilapidate fire tower in the woods. Trying to escape Danny falls to his death and with that Baker if caught faces the death penalty for, a federal charge, kidnap/murder.

Caught by the FBI lead by Special Agent James Madden, Reed Hadley, Baker being a step ahead of the law had disposed of Danny's body and hid the ransom money where he only faced and got a one to five year sentence at the top security Cascaville prison. It's behind bars that Baker got involved, since he had no choice in the matter, with his cell-mates who were serving time for a slew of multiple murders all across the country. Headed by the brains of the outfit Rollo Lamar Baker is forced to break out of jail with Rollo and his fellow cell-mates the worst bunch of convicts in the entire prison system. It's not that Rollo liked Baker but the fact that Baker knew where he stashed the $200,000.00 ransom money was worth saving his life; That's until Rollo got his hands on that cash and then he's history!

Worth watching just to see future action star Charles Bronson all pumped up, the guy would give Arnold Schwartznegger a run for his money in a body building contest, and crazy with future District Attorney Berger, William Talman, in the Perry Mason TV show as, this really takes the cake, William "Machine Gun" Mason! In fact three years later Charles Bronson would get the lead role as the real, whom Talman's character was obviously based on, Machine Gun Kelly.

P.S There's also horror star Lon Cheney Jr. as the dim witted and lovable convicted murderer Lenny Alamo Smith. It fact it was Lenny that Lon Chaney played in the 1939 film "Of Mice & Men" that made him a star. And talking about Lenny in "Of Mice & Men" it was non-other then Broderick Crawford who originated the role on Broadway three years earlier!

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.

"Shield for Murder" director Howard Koch's procedural prison break thriller "Big House, USA," starring Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker, William Talman, Reed Hadley, and Lon Chaney, Jr., chronicles the kidnapping and murder of an eight-year-old lad afflicted with asthma at a Mountain Rangers' recreational camp for boys. The stalwart child, Danny (Peter J. Votrian), emerges triumphantly from a foot race but then collapses from asthma. When a nurse tries to inject him with anti-asthma medicine, Danny freaks out at the sight of the needle and flees from her. Plunging into the vast mountain scenery of Royal Gorge, Colorado, the wayward youth encounters a ruffian, Gerry Barker (Ralph Meeker of "Kiss Me Deadly"), and this lowlife takes him hostage and confines him to a derelict fire tower. Eventually, Danny manages to escape, but he dies in the wilderness. With no sense of remorse, Gerry heaves the young corpse into the gorge. Actually we see Meeker heave something into the void, but the filmmakers are careful not to show Danny's corpse being thrown away. Afterward, the unscrupulous Barker demands $200,000.00 in ransom from Danny's father, Robertson Lambert (Willis Bouchey of "The Big Heat"), and a desperate Lambert comes through with the loot. Gerry stashes his dough where the authorities cannot find it.

Unfortunately, at least for Barker, the Royal Gorge Park Rangers arrest him before he can clear out of the area. Barker told them he had gone fishing, and the Rangers point out that they had poisoned the fish in the lake. Predictably, the FBI are summoned to assist them. Special Agent James Madden (Reed Hadley of "Highway Dragnet") relieves Chief Ranger Will Erickson (Roy Roberts of "The Glory Brigade") of the case, and Barker is shipped off to prison. Nevertheless, since Danny's body has never found, the court sentences Barker to 1-to-5 years in Cascabal Prison in San Pedro, California. For the record, Cascabal means 'rattlesnake' in Spanish. Since he has been sentenced for extortion, Barker doesn't have to worry about a charge of kidnapping. Eventually, the resourceful FBI Special Agent investigates the nurse, Emily Evans (Felicia Farr of "Jubal"), and links her to Barker. After Evans breaks down and confesses her guilt in the kidnapping, the authorities are ready to upgrade the charges against Barker.

Meantime, after Barker enters Cascabal Prison, he finds himself sharing a cell with an unsavory quartet of convicts: Rollo Lamar (Broderick Crawford of "All the King's Men"), 'Machine Gun' Mason (William Talman of "Smoke Signal"), Alamo Smith (Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"), and Benny Kelly (Charles Bronson of "Death Wish"). Rollo has acquired a reputation for being a bank robbery mastermind. At one time, he served as a gangland consultant on heists. Rollo learns about Barker's $200-thousand, and he demands his share of it after he convinces Barker to crash out with them. These four convicts have carefully orchestrated their escape attempt. Benny steals enough oxygen bottles that come with 20 minutes of air for each man to wear. Rollo orders some inmates to brawl, and the warden locks down the facility until the guards can restore order. Meantime, the quintet of inmates slip out, strap on their air tanks, and swim into the lake from an exit valve from the prison. A boat awaits them. No sooner are they aboard and making waves than Rollo coerces a reluctant 'Machine Gun' to crush Benny's head with a hammer. Furthermore, Rollo makes 'Machine Gun' burn off Benny's facial features and his fingerprints with a blow torch. Initially, the escapees succeed in convincing the authorities that Barker perished during the escape.

Not long afterward, however, the FBI learns Barker is still alive because the medical examiner analyzed the dead man's remains and discovered it wasn't Barker. When Barker had been admitted to Cascabal, the physicians discovered the extortionist was suffering from an untreated hernia. The warden offered to repair Barker's hernia, but the convict was afraid that he might divulge information about the kidnapping while he was under anesthesia. By this time, the surviving criminals arrive at Royal Gorge, and Barker takes them to the loot. Happily, the FBI and the Park Rangers corner these reprobates on a high slope with a gorge directly behind the convicts. A gunfight follows, and most are either slain or taken alive. As the film concludes, we are informed that Danny's body was never found.

"Clash by Night" scenarist John C. Higgins penned "Big House, USA" from a story by George W. George and George F. Slavin. George spent most of his career writing television shows, but he also wrote the screenplay for "Fort Dobbs," "Apache Territory," and "Smoke Signal." Slavin wrote "Uranium Boom," "Son of Robin Hood," "Desert Sands," and "My Friend Flicka," as well as virtually every prime-time television show ranging from "Star Trek" to "Mission Impossible" to "The Untouchables." More than likely, the two Georges wrote the original script, and then Higgins came onto the project for the rewrite. The action unfolds with Barker's abduction of Danny, and this seems to go on far longer than necessary. Actually, the kidnapping lands Barker in the slammer, and he becomes an object in Rollo's master scheme to not only crash out of Cascabal but also split the loot with him. Clocking in at 85 concise minutes, the black & white lensed "Big House, USA" with its standard issue 'crime does not pay' message amounts to nothing special. Koch does make this rather unpleasant yarn as palatable as possible considering its repugnant violence.