Crashout

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.

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.

Crashout is directed by Lewis R. Foster, who also co-adapts the screenplay with Hal E. Chester. It stars William Bendix, Arthur Kennedy, Luther Adler, William Talman, Gene Evans and Christopher Olsen. Music is by Leith Stevens and cinematography by Russell Metty.

Six convicts crashout of prison and embark on a life and death struggle to reach safety…

As tough as hobnail boots, Crashout is right there in the upper echelons of convict based film noir. There's not exactly anything new here on formula terms, the cons are angry macho men, each one has their own hang ups, and each one has their respective flaws. Be it religious maniac, fantasist, psychopath or the one who doesn't belong in this company, it's a roll call of familiar convict types. Yet the performances are so strong, the tension so tight, all worries about familiarity breeding contempt disappears the moment the men hide out in a disused mine. For here we learn about their psychological make-ups, and quickly buy into the fractured dynamic that we know is going to result in a machismo fuelled implosion.

The warden said dead or alive and he didn't say which.

Narrative strength comes by way of the fact the leader of the group, Van Morgan Duff (Bendix), is very injured and needs medical help. An out and out cold blooded brute, Duff wisely strikes a deal to split a pot load of hidden loot with the group, thus ensuring he gets to stay alive and in charge! The men then traverse the lands and encounter civilians, which in turn throws up some potent and tense filled scenarios. Murder and violence does follow, the film pretty brutal for the time, while the question of if anyone survives till the end looms large throughout.

You can take the con out of the jail, but you can't take the jail out of the con.

Lewis and Metty do a fine job of cloaking the picture with rugged toughness. Often the camera is up close and personal to reveal the grime, blood or sweat that oozes from the men. Scenes of the guys breaking bottles to use as weapons, a hand caked with hot candle wax, or Duff laid down in the dirt with ants crawling over him, it's all relevant to making these cons as tough as they come. We are not meant to like them, to root for them, they are outcasts of society and we know it. Visually it scores best when in the claustrophobic confines of the cave, and with an extended night sequence at Dexter rail station that's bathed in shadows and murky lights.

Pulsing with fatalism and dripping with dread, Crashout is highly recommended to those after a tough cons on the lam film noir. 8.5/10

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.

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.