Crashout

This prison break movie wastes no time in getting down to business. "Crashout" is a B-Movie directed by Lewis R. Foster and it's just the kind of B-Movie the American cinema did beautifully in the fifties and it's got a terrific cast, (Arthur Kennedy, William Bendix, Luther Adler, Marshall Thompson, Gene Evans and William Tallman), all playing escaped convicts. Kennedy and Adler take the acting honours but they are all excellent and it's got a great plot involving stolen loot and dishonour amongst thieves. If it feels at times like an extended episode of a TV series, it's still a good one that scores points in every department. Maybe not an undiscovered gem but a pleasure nevertheless.

Like Canon City seven years earlier or Big House, U.S.A. of the same year, Crashout follows half a dozen convicts along their futile path to freedom. The drama centers only incidentally on their pursuit by police but explores the tensions that erupt among them and their hostile reaction to the world beyond the machine-gun turrets and barbed-wire fences. It's fast, brutal and far from subtle, but its cast is above-average, and the movie even slows down now and again for a poignant little vignette.

Self-appointed leader of the pack is William Bendix, wounded during the (pre-credits) prison break but brooking no dissent nonetheless. Strangest among them is William Talman (who also appeared in Big House, U.S.A. but of course lost countless cases to Perry Mason on TV, as District Attorney Hamilton Burger); he's a knife-throwing religious nut. Luther Adler as a Latin Lothario, Marshall Thompson as a sentimental kid in this thing over his head, and Gene Evans round out the roster of escapees – except for Arthur Kennedy, who survives with something like a conscience stirring within him.

Helping to stir that conscience is farm gal Beverly Michaels, who arrives much too late in the story. Michaels, in her handful of roles (she starred in Russell Rouse's Wicked Woman), throws off a cool nonchalance that's all her own; with her low, distinctive way of talking, she suggests Sally Kellerman a decade or so later. In the ironic style that was coming into fashion, Crashout's ending leaves us hanging, at least a bit; still, it's competent enough to stand comparison with other installments of the jailbirds-on-the-lam sub-genre.

What an overlooked gem! What a find! This convicts-on-the-run thriller is outstanding. Top-drawer performances led by William Bendix and Arthur Kennedy leave their dirty thumb prints all over this film. Explicitly violent for its time, film noir doesn't get much darker than this. "Crashout" is on the same level as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Asphalt Jungle" and "The Killing". This masterful story is an absolute must-see for any crime-drama and/or film noir buff. A guaranteed wild ride.

Crashout isn't your typical prison movie.

The film was produced by Ida Lupino's company with script contributions by blacklisted writer Cy Enfield. Crashout stars William Bendix, Arthur Kennedy, Gene Evans, William Talman,Luther Adler, Marshall Thompson, Beverly Michaels, and Gloria Talbot.

Six men escape from prison and hide out in a cave while the police scour the countryside looking for them. One is killed almost immediately. The head guy is Van Morgan Duff (Bendix) who has $180,000 hidden, and he's on his way to get it, agreeing to split it six wways.

However, right at the beginning, he's badly wounded - in fact, he plays dead, convincing the cop who shot him that he's finished. Though he seems like he's dying, he's strong enough to lay some groundrules.

The men are supposed to stay in the cave for three days, but the food didn't make it during the escape. Peeking outside and seeing no one around, it's decided they can leave. From then on, we see these ruthless men robbing, stealing cars, killing, and walking toward their individual fates.

Arthur Kennedy, no surprise there, is a standout as Joe Quinn. When the escapees take over a farmhouse, a spark ignites between Joe and Alice, who lives there.

The cast is excellent, with Bendix, so pathetic in "Lifeboat," is mean as dirt here, and future television actors William Talman, Gene Evans, and Marshall Thompson lend good support, along with Broadway actor Luther Adler.

I first saw Beverly Michaels in Pickup, giving an Ann Savage-like performance. From the films of hers I've seen, she can be soft and vulnerable, too. And as usual she towers over everyone.

What some people won't do for money - including a very impressive walk in a blizzard up a mountain. A really good movie, exciting and well acted.

Look out how DVD event allowed to us, a hidden gem from the fifties never seen before for large majority of moviegoers, a fabulous story of six fugitives from prison lead by the most crook character of cinema industry of all time William Bendix extremely stigmatized due he was often pick up by playing bad guys, these six convicts hide in a cave previously planed by the treacherous Van Morgan Duff (William Bendix) following by their inmates the former Reverend Luther Remsen (William Tallman), the skilled gambler Pete Mendoza (Luther Adler), the good hearted thug Monk Collins (Gene Evans) the newbie Bill Lang (Marshall Thompson) and the intruder sardonic thief Joe Quinn (Arthur Kennedy) that trapped into the escape jointing in the group.

During the escape Duff was deadly injured by a bulled at your shoulder, thus their mates are considering leave him dying there, then the clever Duff offers to them a stolen money to share with the group if they got a doctor to extract the bullet and after a little resting to recover led them to hide money, when they leaving the cave Duff whispers to his closest pal Luther concerning all remainder are suckers, along the long journey to heading to the money the police makes a hard interstate chase to arrest them, in every spot to get food and clothes also a new car in order to puzzle the police, someone is laying in the ground killed by the evil reverend or by the police, later on last stop in a distant farm Joe finds a unmarried woman Alice (Beverly Michaels) the chemistry each other is instantaneous let Joe figures out that it should be a new beginning and he must stop running, not quite simple, there more to come, betrayal shall be exactly word for the suckers.

A finest Noir presentation exposing character study on the long journey, their fears, their souls, their worst nature is slowing displaying thru the escape to the audience allowing to us separating the wheat from the chaff, plus many psychological elements enable us pinpoint such gap of the real human being and those wicked nature, on final sequence is paramount to see the whole portrait of human being, fantastic picture!!

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First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.