Outside the Wall

"Film-Noir" as Newbie Aficionados Find-Out Fast is a Tough Genre to Define, Pigeon-Hole, and Explain.

Whole Books have Attempted the Task and the Ambiguity and Miss-Identifying Remains.

Just Ask Eddie Muller who has Made a Well-Deserved Respected Career as "The Czar-of-Noir and Soldiers-On with His Film-Noir Foundation and Today Still Carries the Torch as Good as Any-Body.

Case in Point..."Outside the Wall", Written and Directed by Crane Wilbur", Little Known Hollywood Citizen, who had a Good Sense for Crackling Dialog.

A Good Cast Peppered with Ingredients the Likes of Richard Basehart with Support by Marilyn Maxwell, who had a Long Career, here in the Role of a Femme-Fatale Bleached-Blonde and is a Tough-as-Polished-Nails Nurse on the Make for Guys, "With Fancy Cars and a Pocket-Full of Miracles...

Dorthy Hart is the "Good-Girl", and Harry Morgan, Once Again Sliding Effortlessly from Cop or Criminal, this Time as a Gang Leader with a Sadistic-Side.

John Hoyt is an Aging TB Patient that Basehart Recognizes from a 15 Year Stint for Manslaughter that is Half His Life, whose Gang just Heisted a Cool-Mil from an Armored Truck and His Ruthless Ex-Wife and the Morgan Gang are Scheming to Steal.

Basehart is Terrific and the Philly Locations are the Digs where Basehart, as Naive as an Untrained Puppy, Navigates and Learns OJT, to Stay One Step Ahead of a Noir World of Bad-Guys, Dishy Blondes Void of Conscience, and the Fast-Growing, often Overwhelming Life Environs.

It's a Neat Little Movie Packaged for the Edgy Fans always on the Look-Out for Hidden-Gems Among the Pile of Rocks we Call Hollywood. While this Might Not Be Considered a "Gem" it is Part of the Better than Average B-Crime-Movies...

that May or May Not be Pure Film-Noir but are an Entertaining Enjoyment Plucked from the Pile that was a Steadily Growing Grist for the Mill of Movies from the Period that are even More than just...

Worth a Watch.

From acne ridden adolescent, to hardened thirty year old, Richard Basehart has known only reform school and prison. He is a world leader on the workings of the criminal mind and on survival in the most iniquitous of company. He is also an abject novice on coping with an ever changing modern society, characterized by high rise buildings, fast cars, noisy, bustling city streets and rapidly advancing automation. Utterly naive about girls and alcohol. RESULT: Overpowering two armed robbers? - Piece of cake. Crossing the road?.......Nightmare!

Despite brittle, awkward social skills, Basehart puts his best foot forward, landing a steady, responsible job at a sanatorium and with some cheery colleagues there is genuine cause for optimism, until he falls foul of feeble, fast fading felon, John Hoyt, wheeled in as a patient. Suddenly, Basehart is teetering on the brink. Facing a dilemma. The lure of big, but dirty money and with a high maintenance girlfriend in tow, will the temptation prove too great?

On one level, this is just a neat little crime flick, about a man who has served his time, is eager to go straight, but finds himself compromised as much by the corruption of the outside world, as by demons from his past.

Alternatively it stands as a stark polemic on a woefully inadequate, not fit for purpose system, failing miserably to support ex-criminals as they desperately seek to adjust and find fulfillment in life, outside the wall.

The story begins at Eastern State Penitentiary, an ancient prison that was shut down in 1971. It's an interesting place you can tour to this day...something you might want to do if you visit Philadelphia.

As to the story itself, it seems that Larry (Richard Basehart) has been incarcerated since he was only 14. Now, after living about half his life behind bars, he's learned that he's received a pardon and will be released. However, Larry has a really difficult time adjusting to life outside prison and you wonder if he'll soon commit some crime just to get back to the routine he's become so used to experiencing.

Before this cane happen, Larry's job offers him a chance to either get rich or go back to stir. A con he recognizes has been brought in to the hospital where Larry works and the guy apparently was part of some armored car robbery...and he was never caught and the money is still in hiding. Soon 'friends' of this con approach Larry and they want him to join up. Will Larry go the straight and narrow or give it all up for a familiar life of crime?

This movie is exceptional in many ways. The script is intelligent and well constructed. It gives an unusual insight into the plight of ex-cons and their difficulties adjusting to real life. It also is very tense and filled with bad people and a real femme fatale. Basehart is also excellent...and his forte was playing in film noir movies. Overall, a surprisingly good movie...one crime film buffs should really enjoy.

Not RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 nor BRUTE FORCE, nor THE LAST MILE either. But it is actually a movie about an ex jail bird who was condemned for manslaughter, and who, after his release from prison, encounters many issues. Nothing really exciting, but it is an Universal crime drama, rather hard to find, and Richard Basehart is an actor who is always interesting to see in a movie, especially a thriller. The funny thing is that after this one - OUTSIDE THE WALL - director Crane Wilbur will give us INSIDE THE WALLS OF FOLSOM, and I don't even speak of his CANON CITY, made before this one. Also both prison break plots. Good little noir, pretty much enjoyable.

The premise of a convict trying for a fresh start isn't a new one, but I liked the unique characterization or Richard Basehart in Outside the Wall. He plays a young man who's spent more than half his life in prison. While he was a fourteen-year-old in reform school, he beat up a guard (who later died) and was sentenced to murder. After fifteen years, he receives a pardon and is completely unprepared for the outside world. Think about it: the last time he saw the outside, he was a little boy. He's never driven a car, worked at a job, gone on a date, paid bills, or lived on his own. Thrust out into a new world, he gets a job working in a sanitarium and quickly falls for the first blonde who turns his head, Marilyn Maxwell. Dorothy Hart is the brunette nurse with a heart of gold, in contrast to Marilyn's obvious gold digging schemes. Will the innocent protagonist see through her, or will he have to grow up the hard way?

This old movie doesn't feel like it was made in 1950; it feels like it was made in the early 1930s. Everything about it is old-fashioned, from the good girl and bad girl contrast, to the simple filmmaking techniques, to the type of turns the plot takes. I kept expecting Chester Morris to show up with Carole Lombard, Kay Francis, and Shirley Temple. If you like old movies, and especially ex-con movies, try this one out.