Brute Force (1947)

Director:

Jules Dassin

Writers:

Richard Brooks (screenplay)
Robert Patterson (story)

Release Date:

30 June 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

Mark Hellinger's POWER PACKED PICTURE! (re-release print ad - mostly caps)

Plot:

At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.

Plot Keywords:

Prisoner | Warden | Inmate | Suicide | Prison Riot

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Joe Collins
Hume Cronyn	...	Capt. Munsey
Charles Bickford	...	Gallagher
Yvonne De Carlo	...	Gina Ferrara
Ann Blyth	...	Ruth
Ella Raines	...	Cora Lister
Anita Colby	...	Flossie
Sam Levene	...	Louie Miller #7033
Jeff Corey	...	'Freshman' Stack
John Hoyt	...	Spencer
Jack Overman	...	Kid Coy
Roman Bohnen	...	Warden A.J. Barnes
Sir Lancelot	...	Calypso
Vince Barnett	...	Muggsy
Jay C. Flippen	...	Hodges (guard)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | UK:A (cut) (original rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | USA:Approved (PCA #12441) | Finland:K-16 | Australia:PG

Company:

Mark Hellinger Productions

Trivia:

When the Group Theater (1931-1940), the first American acting company to attempt to put the Russian Stanislavski's principles into action, disbanded many of the actors who had participated in its revolutionary realistic productions on Broadway ("Awake and Sing" "Waiting for Lefty") made their way to Hollywood in search of work;, Roman Bohnen ("Warden"), and Art Smith ("Dr. Walters") - all of whom can be seen in this film. As many of the actors in The Group were members of the Communist Party or leftist organizations, they would soon be blacklisted during the HUAC period along with the director of this film, Jules Dassin. In 1946, a year before the release of this film, Elia Kazan, one of the members of The Group Theater who named names, happened to be in Hollywood and saw a production of one of Tennessee Williams's early plays "Portrait of a Madonna" directed by Hume Cronyn - who plays the sadistic Capt. Munsey in this film. Kazan was so impressed by the work of Cronyn's wife, Jessica Tandy, that he offered her the role of Blanche Dubois in his Broadway production of "Streetcar Named Desire."

Goofs:

Continuity: During a scene in the cell, Jeff Corey's character is washing his hair. His hair alternates between lathered and not lathered.

Quotes:

Warden A.J. Barnes: [In the Warden's office: things at the prison have gotten progressively worse] What's the answer to it? Are we going to have to keep every prisoner in ritual solitary? Other prisons must have the same problems, but they clear them up, keep things running smoothly.
Captain Munsey: We've been through difficult times before, Warden.
Warden A.J. Barnes: Oh, never like this. And McCollum is coming tomorrow. Why? Why can't he let me alone? Everything's gone wrong. I don't know who's to blame, but... I do know that every prisoner hates us.
Captain Munsey: Not us. Me. It's ME they hate.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features The Egg and I (1947)

Powerful, dark drama. Great performance by Cronyn.

BRUTE FORCE This intense, powerful drama stars Burt Lancaster as Collins, a prisoner who's got to find a way out, and Hume Cronyn as the sadistic Captain Munsey, who delights in torturing the inmates. Cronyn is masterful -- cast wonderfully out of character, his slick, soft delivery takes on a skin-crawling menace. Lancaster is appropriately hard and driven, but the fact that he's breaking out to be by his dying girlfriend's side seems facile. The weakest elements of this film are the flashbacks to how his cellmates got locked up. (It seems obvious these scenes are contrived to introduce women into an otherwise all-male cast.) It turns out none of them are really bad guys except Lancaster, who appears to be some kind of gangster. We aren't given much insight into his character; we know he's smart and a leader, but he's clearly got a tendency toward violence. Ultimately, however, it's not about how they got there, but who they are when they get there. It's about what pushes a man past his breaking point and what happens after that. Weaknesses aside, this is a worthwhile, thought-provoking film with excellent performances all around.