My Six Convicts

"My Six Convicts" is an interesting comedy drama about one of the first psychologists to work in a prison. John Beal plays Doc who is given a six-month trial effort to see if he can accurately test the convicts for their IQs, and study their backgrounds. This was part of an idea he had to see if it would make sense to staff prisons with such professionals in the future. Doc's biggest challenge is to earn the trust of the inmates.

After some chicanery by a couple of inmates, and Doc's pointing out the advantages of lighter duty in working with him, half a dozen men come around. They agree to work on his staff, and they become the first to take his tests. Millard Mitchell plays James Connie who surreptitiously steers the Doc and the inmates through a successful effort. Mitchell gives a great performance and received a Golden Globe award as best supporting actor in 1952. Other prominent actors among the inmates are Gilbert Roland as Punch Pinero, Harry Morgan as Dawson, Marshall Thompson as Blivens Scott and Jay Adler as Steve Kopac.

The film is a fictional adaptation of a real story. An attempted prison break, killing and suicide aren't in the book. The source is a 1951 autobiographic book by Donald Powell Wilson, "My Six Convicts: A Psychologist's Three Years in Fort Leavenworth." While Fort Leavenworth is a federal penitentiary in Kansas, the setting and story for this film was at San Quentin, a northern California state prison.

The comedic light touch lifts this film and helps in the individual portrayals of the six convicts' lives in more depth. It's a film worth seeing if one can find it on DVD.