James Cagney as the ruthless, psychopathic gangster ‘Cody’ Jarrett holds this film noir classic together. He’s not your everyday, two-dimensional gangster. His third dimension comes principally in the shape of his pathological relationship with his fiercely protective Ma (Margaret Wycherly), whom Cody loves more than his vapid wife Verna (Virginia Mayo). More than anything, in fact. He’s also prone to crippling headaches and a deteriorating mental state which render him temporarily vunerable, but when his Ma is around she makes sure that his position as gang leader is never compromised. (more…)
Posted on August 25th, 2009 at 10:16 pm. Updated on August 25th, 2009 at 10:29 pm.
It’s hard not to enjoy a movie about a progressive girls’ borstal where the main character, Ann (Jill Ireland), is warned that her monthly visit with her father must be short, and the visit is then terminated after precisely 1 minute 12 seconds. When she pleads for a little longer, she’s told, “I’m afraid the rules have to be obeyed.” Wonderful stuff. (more…)
Posted on August 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pm. Updated on September 1st, 2009 at 9:55 pm.
I knew that this wasn’t a prison comedy per se, but people persist in including it in their lists of prison movie favourites. I have no idea why. I mean, no-one lists The Italian Job (1969) as a prison movie despite Noël Coward’s cameo as Mr Bridger constituting some of the best prison scenes of all time. (more…)
Posted on August 21st, 2009 at 9:17 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:28 pm.
?ukasz is a young, out-of-work graduate when he is picked out of a Police lineup by a doddery old lady. He is duly charged with an assault and remanded into custody. He appears genuinely bewildered by the allegation and strongly protests his innocence, and in the absence of any other evidence linking him to the crime, we tend to believe him. He is temporarily placed in a cell with a swaggering old hand who tells him that he has to choose one of two streams – to be put in with staunch, hardened criminals, or be one of the ‘wankers’. An assessment officer suggests that he work in the kitchen, but as this would place him in the wanker category, he declines. It is at that point that we know that while he may have a major in geography and may be innocent of all criminal activity, at the very least he is a fool. (more…)
Posted on August 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm. Updated on August 24th, 2009 at 3:10 pm.
If there’s an earlier, full-length, talkie prison comedy, I haven’t heard of it. Well, Pardon Us, I suppose, and Hold ‘Em Jail, but they’re a bit like silent movies with words, in parts. And Up the River (1930), though that’s a comedy-drama. There may be fifty others; I don’t know. I do know, however, that there are plenty worse prison comedies than this one. (more…)
Posted on August 1st, 2009 at 10:23 pm. Updated on November 30th, 2013 at 10:57 am.
This is an impressively shot exercise in American self-flagellation and patriotic absolution. (more…)
Posted on July 18th, 2009 at 6:51 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:33 pm.
Moon Jones is the writer and director of this awful, awful mockumentary. He also stars as Luther ‘Satan’ Little, the father of three teenage boys who follow him to prison. Satan is a bad, bad dude. He’s killed people, he sells drugs, he snarls and says ‘bitch’ a lot, and he laughs when another inmate suggests that instead of playing dominoes for cigarettes, they should play for the right to have sex with the cleverest and most sensitive of his sons. Well, step-son. Satan sure is mean, but the scariest thing about the film is when, as the final credits roll over, there is a suggestion that a sequel might be in the offing. Aaaargh! (more…)
Posted on July 11th, 2009 at 6:55 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:09 pm.
It’s a bit disturbing that a laconic Charles Bronson is the best thing about this action thriller which, it must be said, is rather devoid of thrills. It’s also a bit devoid of characterisation, which is pretty standard for this type of film, but at least Bronson gets the job done without being superhuman. That’s a plus.
(more…)
Posted on June 27th, 2009 at 11:50 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:34 pm.
They don’t get any more melodramatic than this. Thankfully. (more…)
Posted on June 21st, 2009 at 3:58 pm. Updated on September 27th, 2009 at 8:11 pm.
This is an unashamed propaganda film for prison reform and the incumbent San Quentin Warden, Clinton T Duffy, to whom the film is dedicated (along with his ‘men’). (more…)
Posted on June 8th, 2009 at 12:13 pm. Updated on March 11th, 2017 at 8:19 pm.