Brute Force (1947)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Jules Dassin

Writers:

Richard Brooks (screenplay)
Robert Patterson (story)

Release Date:

30 June 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Film-Noir | Drama

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)
Richard Gaines	...	McCollum
Frank Puglia	...	Ferrara
James Bell	...	Crenshaw
Howard Duff	...	Robert 'Soldier' Becker (as Howard Duff Radio's Sam Spade)
Art Smith	...	Dr. Walters
Whit Bissell	...	Tom Lister
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobby Barber	...	Jack, Prisoner in Yard (uncredited)
Guy Beach	...	Convict foreman (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks	...	Convict (uncredited)
Paul Bryar	...	Harry (uncredited)
Howland Chamberlain	...	Joe's lawyer (uncredited)
Eddy Chandler	...	Chappie, Motor Pool Guard in Garage (uncredited)
Edmund Cobb	...	Bradley (tower guard) (uncredited)
Claudette Colbert	...	Clip from 'The Egg and I' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gino Corrado	...	Italian father (uncredited)
William Cozzo	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Rex Dale	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Virginia Farmer	...	Sadie (uncredited)
Al Ferguson	...	Guard (uncredited)
Alex Frazer	...	Chaplain (uncredited)
Chuck Hamilton	...	Prison Guard (uncredited)
John Harmon	...	Roberts (uncredited)
Herbert Heywood	...	Chef (uncredited)
Al Hill	...	Convict in chow line (uncredited)
Lee Kendall	...	Shorty (uncredited)
Rex Lease	...	Hearse driver (uncredited)
Jack S. Lee	...	Sergeant (uncredited)
Will Lee	...	Convict in chow line (uncredited)
Kenneth MacDonald	...	Cell check guard (uncredited)
Fred MacMurray	...	Clip from 'The Egg and I' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hal Malone	...	Young inmate (uncredited)
Frank Marlowe	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Francis McDonald	...	Regan (uncredited)
Don McGill	...	Max (uncredited)
Larry McGrath	...	Convict in chow line (uncredited)
Charles McGraw	...	Andy (uncredited)
Howard M. Mitchell	...	Guard (uncredited)
Edmond O'Brien	...	Inmate (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien	...	Convict (uncredited)
Blanche Obronska	...	Young girl (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Prison Guard (uncredited)
James O'Rear	...	Wilson (uncredited)
Kenneth Patterson	...	Bronski (uncredited)
Charles Perry	...	Prisoner in Yard (uncredited)
Carl Rhodes	...	Strella (uncredited)
Sam Rizhallah	...	Convict son (uncredited)
Wally Rose	...	Peary (uncredited)
Gene Roth	...	Hoffman (uncredited)
Jerry Salvail	...	Guard (uncredited)
Ruth Sanderson	...	Miss Lawrence (uncredited)
Tom Steele	...	Tom (tower machine gunner) (uncredited)
Glenn Strange	...	Tompkins (uncredited)
Ray Teal	...	Jackson, Munsey's Guard (uncredited)
Kippee Valez	...	Visitor (uncredited)
Dale Van Sickel	...	Guard in machine shop (uncredited)
Peter Virgo	...	Guard (uncredited)
Billy Wayne	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Crane Whitley	...	Armed guard in drainpipe (uncredited)
Harry Wilson	...	Tyrone, Prisoner in Yard (uncredited)
Bud Wolfe	...	Guard in machine shop (uncredited)

Directed by
Jules Dassin

Writing credits
Richard Brooks		(screenplay)
Robert Patterson		(story)

Produced by
Jules Buck	....	associate producer
Mark Hellinger	....	producer

Original Music by
Miklós Rózsa		(as Miklos Rozsa)

Cinematography by
William H. Daniels		(director of photography) (as William Daniels)

Film Editing by
Edward Curtiss

Art Direction by
John DeCuir		(as John F. DeCuir)
Bernard Herzbrun

Set Decoration by
Russell A. Gausman
Charles Wyrick

Costume Design by
Rosemary Odell		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Carmen Dirigo	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fred Frank	....	assistant director

Art Department
John Decker	....	portrait painter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Charles Felstead	....	sound
Robert Pritchard	....	sound

Special Effects by
David S. Horsley	....	special photography

Music Department
Eugene Zador	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Jacques Gordon	....	technical advisor
Harry B. Friedman	....	publicist (uncredited)
Mark Hellinger	....	presenter (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Mark Hellinger Productions (presents)
• Universal International Pictures (UI)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1947) (USA) (theatrical)
• General Film Distributors (GFD) (1947) (UK) (theatrical)
• Distributors Corporation of America (DCA) (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Image Entertainment (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Roan Group, The (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)

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 Munsey is beating the reporter for information on the escape, he plays the overture to Wagner's "Tannheuser". Perhaps a reference to Hitler's love of Wagner.

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:

Gallagher: Those gates only open three times. When you come in, when you've served your time, or when you're dead!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Last Castle (2001)

Nothing's OK! Never was ,never will!

One of the best prison movies ever made.Jules Dassin's direction is so strong ,so precise,so mind-boggling it packs a real wallop.Hume Cronyn gives a subdued but extremely scary portrayal of a sadistic brute.Always in a suave voice,always saying "I want to help you",there's only one way for him:the hard one.Burt Lancaster is equally effective as a tough inmate .But the whole cast cannot be too highly praised.

The cast and credits read :"the women from outside" .There are four flashbacks which really fit into the movie.All of them last barely two or three minutes but they could provide material for four other movies. The first one (Flossie's ) verges on farce ,it is the comic relief of a desperate movie and we need it!Then the "fur coat" segment which is some kind of Cinderella turned film noir.The third one,perhaps the less interesting (everything is relative!), features Yvonne De Carlo as an Italian girl during the war the former soldier was in love with .And finally Burt Lancaster's story, he tries to find money to pay his girlfriend's operation.

These flashbacks are not gratuitous:all that is left to those men is memories .Besides,the last line tells us something like that:"nobody will escape!nobody!" More than ten years before ,Dassin had shown what French director Jacques Becker would do in his famous prison movie "le trou" (1960) : the prison as a metaphor of the human condition.

There are a lot of scenes which will leave you on the edge of your seat.My favorite scene: the informer's death while Lancaster is securing his alibi with the doc.But the final is awesome too,something apocalyptic.