Brute Force (1947)

Directed by Jules Dassin. Starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Roman Bohnen, Ann Blyth, Yvonne De Carlo, Jeff Corey, Frank Puglia, Ella Raines, Art Smith, Anita Colby, Sir Lancelot, James O’Rear, Jay C. Flippen.

Nothing misleading about this title—it’s a tough prison picture with bestial power and bludgeoning cruelty, but with the mindless anti-heroics of a thrilling genre piece and the conscience of a social drama (Richard Brooks even wrote the screenplay). Lancaster follows up his debut role in The Killers with another dynamically charismatic piece of screen acting, proving he was the real deal. He’s matched (topped, in fact) by Cronyn’s soft-spoken sadist of a prison guard, as vile an authority figure as Hollywood ever offered up during the era. Powerhouse early and climactic segments are marred by a mid-section that sags a bit from an abundance of flashbacks to the lives of the prisoners before incarceration, women included; these episodes may humanize the inmates, but they’re underdeveloped and interruptive. One of the most violent movies of its time—the themes may be a bit dated, but the muscle behind them isn’t. Calypso singer Sir Lancelot distracts as a convict whose singing rubs against the harrowing grain of the drama.

76/100