Behind the High Wall

Tom Tully is one of the best examples - possibly *the* best example - of a Hollywood character actor who played prominent supporting roles in many films yet who remains unknown to audiences (even movie-trivia buffs) because he consistently gave understated and subtle performances, refusing to throw a film's storyline off-centre by calling attention to himself. In 'Behind the High Wall', Tully gets a rare chance in a leading role, and he proves himself an actor of great talent and range. Unfortunately, his leading lady here is one of my least favourite actresses: Sylvia Sidney (snaggled of tooth, bulbous of lips, coarse of accent).

Tully plays Frank Carmichael, a prison governor with money problems and a crippled wife (Sidney, not crippled enough to suit me). Some inmates, who have accomplices and money waiting for them on the out, organise an escape... killing a cellblock warder in the process. They take along two hostages: Carmichael and Hutchins, an inmate who wants to go straight. Once they're on the out, the escapees join up with accomplices who have $100,000 in hot swag. A convenient road accident kills everyone except Carmichael and Hutchins. As the loot can't be traced to Carmichael, he decides to keep it, pinning the warder's murder on Hutchins to get him out of the way. But then of course there are complications...

Sylvia Sidney's role here is too similar to her role in 'Fury', a much better movie than this one. In both films, she forces the protagonist to stay honest when I wanted him to benefit from a circumstance of chance that worked illegally in his favour. I have a lot of problems with Sylvia Sidney: I've never liked her in any performance of hers I've ever seen. Yet my all-time favourite director (Fritz Lang) cast her in the lead roles in his first three American films, so he must have seen some merit in her. Damned if I can find it, though.

Shortly after Sylvia Sidney's death, a tribute for her was held at the Players Club in Gramercy Park, New York City (she had lived there on the club's charity, with her yapping little pug dogs). I covered this event as a reporter. One after another, dozens of celebrities related anecdotes about Sidney, but each of those stories boiled down to one of three punchlines: Sylvia wanted some booze, Sylvia said a dirty word, or Sylvia was rude to somebody who didn't deserve it. If you changed the booze to drugs, any of those stories could have been told about John Belushi. The difference was, all the blue-haired dowagers in the Players Club - who laughed merrily at these stories of Sylvia Sidney boozing, cursing and insulting people - would have been profoundly offended by these exact same stories if they had been attributed to John Belushi.

In the key role as Carmichael's fall guy, John Gavin gives a good performance but is miscast. Gavin is so superhumanly handsome, he isn't believable as a small-time criminal. There are fine performances here (in small roles) by Don Beddoe, Ed Kemmer, John Larch, Peter Leeds and satchel-mouthed Barney Phillips. Tom Tully is a revelation, and deserves to be better known. I was annoyed that all the actors kept using the American pronunciation of the name 'Carmichael', with the accent on the wrong syllable, but that's to be expected in a Yank movie. I'll rate 'Behind the High Wall' 7 out of 10. I might have rated it higher if Sylvia Sidney's lips didn't enter the room five seconds ahead of the rest of her body.

It begins like a prison break plot, in the line of CANON CITY, CRASHOUT, BIG HOUSE USA, but it appears that this is quite different. The following plot will surprise you, because of the warden character. Not the predictable scheme of good vs evil guys. Abner Biberman made some good films for Universal Studios and this one belongs to his best. NIGHT RUNNER was good too. This is for me an underrated crime film from the fifties. I like being surprised by such daring schemes. I won't tell you the film not spoil it. Please try it, if you can purchase it; it is not so hard to get. Maybe more drama than pure gritty crime yarn.

Frank Carmichael (Tom Tully) has been the acting warden forever. He does his best for the inmates but the governing body who is to decide if he is to become the permanent warden and sometimes even the inmates themselves do not appreciate his efforts. He does have a great and loving marriage with his wheelchair bound wife, Hilda (Sylvia Sidney).

Then, one day, there is a prison break and he's taken hostage by the escapees. There is a high speed chase and crash in which the only survivors were the driver for the convicts and the warden. This is after the warden shoots and kills an escaping con who happens to have a suitcase full of money - one hundred thousand dollars. And here you have the classic noir dilemma - A basically good man who is feeling wronged - in this case by his employer - and who is tempted, in this case by a sudden opportunity with only a short time to decide. The warden buries the money near the crash site and a moment later the police arrive and the driver of the convicts wakes up.

The driver, Johnny Hutchins (John Gavin) is arrested for the murder of the one cop who died in the escape. Johnny says he was not in on the escape, that he was taken hostage, but the police and the DA are not buying his story. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Now on the surface these look like two very different things - The warden keeping the stolen money and the driver being sentenced to death for murder. They are joined only by the fact that the warden was a witness in Johnny's murder trial, and he truthfully can only say that Johnny was the driver and that he didn't see him being forced to do anything. But then after the trial and sentencing the warden discovers proof of Johnny's innocence. But to reveal that proof would also reveal himself as a thief. Complications ensue.

So the second half of the movie amounts to the warden wrestling with his conscience, made doubly hard because every day he sees Johnny sitting on death row. His wife is part of the dilemma too since he told her about the money and she is tormented by the situation. The warden becomes short tempered and begins to drink more. Johnny becomes angrier because of his unjust fate. This could have become boring and claustrophobic because of the lack of action, but it is very well done and suspenseful.

I'd give this 9/10 if not for the occasional odd histrionics that the actors employ, some right out of techniques used in the silent era. For example, to show how upset Johnny is at one point he puts his fist in his mouth and grimaces. I thought it boiled down to lapses in direction, and it did turn out that the director was mainly a supporting actor during his career and not at all an experienced director. Later he'd switch to directing TV where he was more effective.

I'd definitely recommend it if you like a good noir.

A late film noir, with an interesting plot and undeniable potential, unfortunately poorly taken advantage of.

The classic film noir has unscrupulous, false, treacherous characters, always looking for an opportunity to deceive the next. Sometimes, from so much conspiring, they end up suffering the effects of their own poison on their skin or else captured by enemies or the police.

But this Behind the High Wall is a film that is too scrupulous, full of feelings of guilt, regret, too moralistic, precisely the opposite of what characterizes film noir. It is the result of a different era in which traditional values prevailed, in post-war abundance.

Thus a banal melodrama, often implausible, masquerading as film noir.

BEHIND THE HIGH WALL is a little bit of a letdown. The basic idea of the plot is good, if not terribly original: good guy goes bad to try for a better life. The movie starts off just fine with intrigue and some fine action scenes. It's too bad the picture bogs down in talk midway and only barely recovers. What makes BEHIND THE HIGH WALL worth seeing is the dark, sometimes oppressive noir photography and the impressive cast. Tom Tully is excellent as always in a conflicted, yet sympathetic lead role as a prison warden who makes a bad decision. As his crippled wife, Sylvia Sydney--a great actress who is a standout in Fritz Lang's FURY--is almost wasted. But she brings credibility to what could have been merely a maudlin character. The other impressive cast member is John Gavin. Anyone who doubts this chiseled matinée idol's acting talent should see this. Gavin never hits a false note and carries all his scenes with terrific conviction. The movie is populated with many other faces later familiar from TV as well: John Larch, Barney Philips, Peter Leeds, Ed Kemmer (wasted as a frustrated lawyer), Amzie Strickland, and Betty Lynn (later known as 'Thelma Lou' on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW). Lynn's father is played excellently by veteran actor Don Beddoe.