Tre passi dalla sedia elettrica

I jut watched this on TCM I gave it a shot because Vincent Price is 4th billed out of an amazing cast of old character actors. Well he shows up 92 minutes in! His screen time is exactly 1 minute haha. So if you want to see Vinnie go look elsewhere.

I didn't like Ben Gazzara before and i don't like him now. He's not very likable, his acting is wooden, and he was born looking 50. He's suppose to be a young kid of like 19 at the beginning of this movie lol. Also when i looked up the facts this movie is just all Hollywood fantasy. John Resko didn't go out on Christmas eve to get his daughter a teddy bear....duh. He went to rob a store with a fellow hood and killed a man. He eventually learns to kind of paint...so what? I don't recommend this boring movie.

This film was based on a true story and of course the filmmakers took liberties with the story line to pique the movie goers interest. I do believe though that prisons are a necessary form of punishment to save many lives that would otherwise have been destroyed if these convicted killers were never imprisoned and left to continue with their criminal activities, especially when there was a depression going on across the world.

This film depicts the internal struggles of one such young man named John Resko (played superbly by Ben Gazzara) who at the age of 19 was already the father of a young child when he was apprehended rather quickly, and convicted to life in prison for his crimes of armed robbery and first degree murder. There is a strong and deep supporting cast such as Sammy Davis Jr., Rod Steiger,Jack Albertson, Ray Walston, and Stuart Whitman, to name just a few that all added great value to reflecting the harshness of the time of prison life. Not shown in the film was the fact that John Resko had an older accomplice in the robbery who convinced John to hold the gun and pull the trigger when confronted by the store clerk who was murdered. This other accomplice in the crime with a more extensive criminal record was also convicted and put to death. John Resko received what some may consider a lighter sentence of a life in prison.

In the 1930's convicted felons were subjected to much harsher conditions in prison life than they are today, so the film does show that even during the trying decades of the 1930's through the 1940's, there were some in the criminal justice system who attempted to find redemption for their prisoners. This is one of those successful true life cases that when presented on the screen in 1962 a decade or so after John Resko was released from prison shows that prison reform is possible and can succeed. So why some seventy (70) years after John Resko's release through prison reform are the United States prisons still over populated and disproportionately by African Americans?

The answer would appear to be that it is a multi billion dollar dirty business that employs tens of thousands of lawyers, judges, parole officers, prison guards, psychiatrists and of course racists.

I give the film a healthy 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Ben Gazzara does a very good job as artist/prisoner John Resko in "Convicts 4," based on Resko's autobiography. Desperate to get his daughter a teddy bear for Christmas, Resko attempts to rob a store and ends up shooting and killing the owner. He is given the death penalty, but his sentence is later commuted to life. He is moved to another prison, where he meets a Principal of the prison (Stuart Whitman) who encourages his art talent, stating that it may be the key to his rehabilitation and finally, freedom from prison.

Sammy Davis, Jr., Ray Walston, Broderick Crawford, and Rod Steiger are featured in the film, so it's an excellent cast. The film comes off as low-budget (well, it is based in a prison), a little slow, and a little ordinary. The actors are better than the script.

Worth it for the performances.

Ben Gazarra plays John Resko. He killed a shop owner over a teddy bear for his daughter and was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Sing Sing. Through the intercession of the lead guard and later warden, played by Stuart Whitman, he developed an interest and ability in art. After decades in prison, his sentence was commuted.

Writer Millard Kaufman (in his only turn as director) filmed prison scenes in Folsom and San Quentin, and filled the cast with major supporting actors, including Ray Walston, Rod Steiger, Sammy Davis Jr., and Timothy Farrell as convicts, Broderick Crawford as the warden (possibly intended to be Sing Sing's longtime warden Lewis Lawes), and Vincent Price as a visiting art expert and member of the parole board. The pace of the movie is deliberately slow as Gazarra inches towards rehabilitation, but the plethora of details and eccentricities of the performers (including, inevitably, Farrell's intimidating softie) keep it moving right along.

The movie obviously has some merit in its acting, its filming, and its points about the justice system. But I found it unwatchable, at least this day. One after another, situations felt very forced to produce an effect. I wasn't able to get much of the effect because I was too busy cringing at how ham-handed various bits were. (For example: the robbery, the initial conflict with the first cell-mate, the initial conflict with the second cell-mate,...)

Some stuff *did* work potently for me, like the problem with Gazzara's bed.

About forty minutes in, when (as others mentioned) Timothy Carey is dubbed in his character's first scene, I guess it was just one 'fakeyness' straw too many and I turned off the TV. Either let him talk through his teeth, or don't let him talk through his teeth.