Rent Brute Force (1947)

Bleak - Brute Force review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Julie’s Dassin’s bleak prison break drama has Lancaster as Collins the leader of seven men all cooped up in a single cell in an overcrowded powderkeg prison. It’s never revealed why he is there although we do see a brief backstory of why he wants to escape. The prison is run by an ineffectual warden with the real power wielded by Capt Muncie (Cronyn) who seems polite and softly spoken but is revealed to be a power mad sadist who will use any means necessary to achieve his aims. A plan is laid but it soon becomes apparent that Muncie knows and has laid a trap but the prisoners are so desperate that they go ahead anyway fully aware of the consequences. The final break is superbly staged with multiple action scenes as utter chaos descends and Muncie becomes totally unhinged. It’s a really bleak take on the human condition and for it’s time really quite violent - a stool pigeon is forced under a huge metal press and others characters are sacrificed in a increasingly pointless manner. Lancaster is as always solid in the role but it’s Cronyn with his skin crawling performance that you take away from it - 4/5

Includes spoilers. - Brute Force review by Steve

Brilliant prison noir which retains the liberal sentiments of the great Warner Brothers penitentiary films of the thirties. But America had since been through WWII and the dynamic between guard and prisoner has changed. The convicts are humanised by flashbacks to domestic life. When the inevitable knock on the door comes, it now evokes images of the gestapo.  

Many of the men fought in the war, and draw on combat experience to plan an escape. Hume Cronyn is the sadistic guard, his torso oiled, polishing his rifle while listening to Wagner, intent on beating a confession out of a prisoner with a lead pipe. No debate about whose side we are on here, though true to the laws of noir, Burt Lancaster and his cellmates are cursed.  

Jules Dassin was associated with the Hollywood ten and this is the work of a dissident. Cronyn plays a political figure. His power is justified by the uniform (which anticipates the Stanford Prison experiment). He is a fascist, who turns his fire on the inmates, or manoeuvres them to self destruction. His sadism is sensual ('I get quite a kick from censoring the mail').

Lancaster is the nominal star, but it's Cronyn that dominates. There is a chilling moment at the end when he is announced as the new Governor, surely a warning from Dassin about how close America is to fascism: 'Kindness is a weakness' he says as he lies to a prisoner that his wife has divorced him, 'the weak must die so the strong can live'.