Outside the Wall

In the Hollywood of late '40s and early '50s, Richard Basehart found plenty of work in the noir cycle but never made a major mark, the mark of a Robert Mitchum or Glenn Ford or even a Dick Powell. His good looks were all-American bland - lackluster - and his acting rarely leapt to dangerous voltages. Probably more at home on stage than on the pitiless screen, he leaves one of his fullest performances in a shunted-aside noir, Outside The Wall.

Just 30 but with 15 years in stir behind him (he'd caused the death of an abusive guard when he was just a kid in reform school), he secures an unexpected release from prison. An old lifer grumbles about life outside: `Everybody's got the jitters. A buck ain't worth a buck anymore.' But mo st of all he warns about the `dames,' of whom Basehart knows absolutely nothing. He'll soon find out.

In his first night in Philadelphia, a B-girl feeds him his first taste of liquor and tries to filch his wallet; later, washing dishes, he foils a stickup and, fed up with Brotherly Love, heads for the clean country of Jewel Lake, landing a job as a lab technician at a TB sanitarium. His first patient (John Hoyt) turns out to be an ex-con he knows who's just pulled a fatal armored-car robbery. When Basehart fails to blow the whistle, the dying Hoyt trusts him enough to mule payoff money to his avaricious wife (Signe Hasso).

The straight-arrow Basehart normally wouldn't dirty his hands, but the blonde and mercenary charms of nurse Marilyn Maxwell lead him to rethink his monkish life (`I just found out what money can buy,' he tells her, forking over a platinum bracelet in his new roadster). Still, his stirring conscience beckons him to fess up about his past to good-gal Dorothy Hart. But Hoyt has the means to hold him to his bargain, while his wife and her ruthless accomplices have their own plans for him....

Crane Wilbur, who started way back in the silent era, wrote several noirs and directed a few of them, mostly about prison life (Canon City, The Story of Molly X). Here, he directs his story with some nicely observed vignettes about the dislocation awaiting released felons but, as it advances, less than persuasive plotting. But, in addition to the convincing work he coaxes from Basehart, he assembles a solid cast, with Maxwell and Hasso rivaling one another in duplicity and Hart more appealing than the saintly simp she might have been.

Harry Morgan also appears, as a thug who elicits information by sliding scalpels under fingernails. Interestingly a veteran of even more noirs than Basehart, Morgan played the heavy the year before, too, in Red Light, but couldn't hold a candle to his partner in crime, Raymond Burr. Here, he takes his place amid a balanced cast with intersecting motives that result in a movie that, while satisfying, falls well short of spectacular. Still, it merits more viewers.

"Film-Noir" as Newbie Aficionados Find-Out Fast is a Tough Genre to Define, Pigeon-Hole, and Explain.

Whole Books have Attempted the Task and the Ambiguity and Miss-Identifying Remains.

Just Ask Eddie Muller who has Made a Well-Deserved Respected Career as "The Czar-of-Noir and Soldiers-On with His Film-Noir Foundation and Today Still Carries the Torch as Good as Any-Body.

Case in Point..."Outside the Wall", Written and Directed by Crane Wilbur", Little Known Hollywood Citizen, who had a Good Sense for Crackling Dialog.

A Good Cast Peppered with Ingredients the Likes of Richard Basehart with Support by Marilyn Maxwell, who had a Long Career, here in the Role of a Femme-Fatale Bleached-Blonde and is a Tough-as-Polished-Nails Nurse on the Make for Guys, "With Fancy Cars and a Pocket-Full of Miracles...

Dorthy Hart is the "Good-Girl", and Harry Morgan, Once Again Sliding Effortlessly from Cop or Criminal, this Time as a Gang Leader with a Sadistic-Side.

John Hoyt is an Aging TB Patient that Basehart Recognizes from a 15 Year Stint for Manslaughter that is Half His Life, whose Gang just Heisted a Cool-Mil from an Armored Truck and His Ruthless Ex-Wife and the Morgan Gang are Scheming to Steal.

Basehart is Terrific and the Philly Locations are the Digs where Basehart, as Naive as an Untrained Puppy, Navigates and Learns OJT, to Stay One Step Ahead of a Noir World of Bad-Guys, Dishy Blondes Void of Conscience, and the Fast-Growing, often Overwhelming Life Environs.

It's a Neat Little Movie Packaged for the Edgy Fans always on the Look-Out for Hidden-Gems Among the Pile of Rocks we Call Hollywood. While this Might Not Be Considered a "Gem" it is Part of the Better than Average B-Crime-Movies...

that May or May Not be Pure Film-Noir but are an Entertaining Enjoyment Plucked from the Pile that was a Steadily Growing Grist for the Mill of Movies from the Period that are even More than just...

Worth a Watch.

Not RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 nor BRUTE FORCE, nor THE LAST MILE either. But it is actually a movie about an ex jail bird who was condemned for manslaughter, and who, after his release from prison, encounters many issues. Nothing really exciting, but it is an Universal crime drama, rather hard to find, and Richard Basehart is an actor who is always interesting to see in a movie, especially a thriller. The funny thing is that after this one - OUTSIDE THE WALL - director Crane Wilbur will give us INSIDE THE WALLS OF FOLSOM, and I don't even speak of his CANON CITY, made before this one. Also both prison break plots. Good little noir, pretty much enjoyable.

The premise of a convict trying for a fresh start isn't a new one, but I liked the unique characterization or Richard Basehart in Outside the Wall. He plays a young man who's spent more than half his life in prison. While he was a fourteen-year-old in reform school, he beat up a guard (who later died) and was sentenced to murder. After fifteen years, he receives a pardon and is completely unprepared for the outside world. Think about it: the last time he saw the outside, he was a little boy. He's never driven a car, worked at a job, gone on a date, paid bills, or lived on his own. Thrust out into a new world, he gets a job working in a sanitarium and quickly falls for the first blonde who turns his head, Marilyn Maxwell. Dorothy Hart is the brunette nurse with a heart of gold, in contrast to Marilyn's obvious gold digging schemes. Will the innocent protagonist see through her, or will he have to grow up the hard way?

This old movie doesn't feel like it was made in 1950; it feels like it was made in the early 1930s. Everything about it is old-fashioned, from the good girl and bad girl contrast, to the simple filmmaking techniques, to the type of turns the plot takes. I kept expecting Chester Morris to show up with Carole Lombard, Kay Francis, and Shirley Temple. If you like old movies, and especially ex-con movies, try this one out.

The story begins at Eastern State Penitentiary, an ancient prison that was shut down in 1971. It's an interesting place you can tour to this day...something you might want to do if you visit Philadelphia.

As to the story itself, it seems that Larry (Richard Basehart) has been incarcerated since he was only 14. Now, after living about half his life behind bars, he's learned that he's received a pardon and will be released. However, Larry has a really difficult time adjusting to life outside prison and you wonder if he'll soon commit some crime just to get back to the routine he's become so used to experiencing.

Before this cane happen, Larry's job offers him a chance to either get rich or go back to stir. A con he recognizes has been brought in to the hospital where Larry works and the guy apparently was part of some armored car robbery...and he was never caught and the money is still in hiding. Soon 'friends' of this con approach Larry and they want him to join up. Will Larry go the straight and narrow or give it all up for a familiar life of crime?

This movie is exceptional in many ways. The script is intelligent and well constructed. It gives an unusual insight into the plight of ex-cons and their difficulties adjusting to real life. It also is very tense and filled with bad people and a real femme fatale. Basehart is also excellent...and his forte was playing in film noir movies. Overall, a surprisingly good movie...one crime film buffs should really enjoy.