Crashout

The opening credits show the prison break itself so this movie is all about the run for freedom. A rag-tag motley crew of inmates, none of whom seems to like the others much, crack under the tension of the chase in different ways and seem fated to never truly escape themselves. The atmosphere is doom-laden from the outset and becomes more tragic as it goes on. Rare moments of levity arise in a few contrastingly sentimental mini-subplots as certain women are encountered/accosted along the way - but here again there is a melancholic tone, the same one that runs through this tale from start to finish. A raw, gritty and fatalistic movie which is much better than it has any right to be! Recommended.

A curiously compelling little movie, Crashout is a throwback to the tough prison-escape movies of the 30's. Fortunately, the producers had the good sense to hire an expert cast of B-movie veterans to enliven an otherwise shopworn plot. Writer-producer Hal Chester and director- writer Lewis Foster provide each convict with a distinct personality that holds viewer interest as tensions mount, while the audience anticipates how each character will be brought to justice. Standouts in the cast are the always subtle Arthur Kennedy, an engagingly ambivalent Marshall Thompson, and William Tallman doing his scary psycho bit, this time as a knife-throwing religious fanatic. Then there's that raspy little gnome Percy Helton, lending his unique brand of character color. And in a poignant bit part, cult favorite Gloria Talbott as the prospect of a normal life for the ill-fated Thompson. The scenes in the dingy roadhouse are well done, along with an appropriately ironical ending. Though you've seen it all before, there are many nice touches that lift this otherwise generous slice of thick-ear beyond the merely routine.

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.

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.

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.