Mit dem Messer im Rücken

This B-grade prison movie really packs a wallop, thanks to committed performances from a cast featuring Gene Evans, Tim Carey and Robert Blake. A stock story is brought to convincing, exciting life as hardened criminal Gene Evans is thrown into the "Big House". Right off the bat, he organizes a crashout. But he has other things on his mind as well. Routine as it may at first seem, this movie holds a number of surprises that make well worth anyone's time. Evans is solid as ever and expert at taking charge of the situation. He has no trouble standing up to and intimidating Tim Carey (a feat in itself). But the most impressive performance comes from young Robert Blake: his subtle use of accent and his consistency of character show true acting talent. Blake is the heart of this film while Evans is the brazen brains of it. Also on hand are stalwarts John Qualen, Emile Meyer and others, all directed by R.G. Springsteen with powerhouse impact. Great stuff. Yet another B movie that could use a restored issue on DVD.

The plot of this film has been filmed a million times: a group of prisoners start a revolt in order to make an escape attempt. What makes this worth seeing over dozens of other "B" films is the good cast. Gene Evans is excellent as Lou Barlow who tricks good kid Rudy (Robert Blake) into helping him escape. Tim Carey gives his usual good performance as the unhinged prisoner "Bugsy" who lovingly fondles guns. Glad my local video store had this one.

Apart from the 'women in prison' exploitation films of the early 1970s, prison films usually are among the better movies you can find. Now I am not saying they all are great movies...but finding a bad prison film isn't easy. So, I wasn't very surprised that "Revolt in the Big House" turned out to be very watchable and well made.

When the story begins, tough guy Lou Gannon (Gene Evans) has arrived at prison. He apparently was a very famous criminal but getting the goods on him wasn't easy...and he FINALLY has run out of luck. Once there, he meets up with an old friend, 'Bugsy' (Timothy Carey) and the pair work on a plan for a big escape. This involves coming up with a plan to smuggle guns into the prison...and you'll have to watch the film to see what's next.

The acting, script and direction are all good here. In fact, I can't think of any big problems with the film and a score of 8 is awfully good for such a low budgeted picture. My one complaint is when one of the prisoners gets machined gunned....and not a single hole nor speck of blood is seen...nothing. Quite enjoyable overall.

In most prison flicks, whenever a convict returns from solitary confinement... a week or longer in almost pitch dark... they'd emerge like from a well-lit office, maybe a little more tired, ragged...

But Robert Blake in the low-budget potboiler REVOLT IN THE BIG HOUSE has an extremely jaded expression, rubbing his eyes while suffering the proverbial devil's hangover, back into the flow of prisoners that includes our main star, Gene Barry, as a once-powerful headline-making mobster, now doing twenty years to life...

Blake's Mexican twenty-something Rudy Hernandez is his cellmate, initially providing a monologue summing up his entire wrong-side-of-the-streets existence in an overlong six minutes... and every minute counts in what's a programmer/exploitation, practically a remake of Don Siegel's RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11...

Both have Emile Meyer as an open-minded warden, and while that's a far superior picture, REVOLT intentionally packs more of a violent wallop, including chief guard Walter Barnes... a composite of all guards... who can't stop bullying Blake... in fact he's the reason the poor kind wound up in solitaire...

The best scenes occur during the first half as Gene Evan's Lou Gannon plays it mellow and slow-burn, getting a soft job and, within the main interior set of gathered prisoners (contrasting to random grainy real-life stock footage of a real prison), he subtly collects willing criminals for the second half's anticipated and thus inevitable titular REVOLT aka attempted breakout...

And once again, Timothy Carey is the scene-stealer, about thirty-pounds too heavy for an agile and cunning heavy yet his signature gritting teeth and firebrand temper is always fun, helping to turn this BIG HOUSE into a neat ensemble of character-driven scenes that, as a whole, smoothly passes the time without feeling like doing time.

The joy of this movie is that it filled with generic (corny) lines and situations throughout, yet it is still a great yarn. Some friends and I discovered this flick accidentally on TV years ago in the 70's and it has enjoyed a surreptitious cult-like status ever since. With lines like, "I can't eat, I can't sleep, food turns sour in my belly," and characters with a name like Bugsy, and a very young Robert Blake spouting, "Oh, holy Toledo!" you just cannot go wrong watching this movie with some friends. I challenge anybody who sees this movie to try and not quote at least one of the many unforgettable lines for days and/or years after seeing Lou and the gangs travails inside the unforgiving walls of "the big house."