Cárcere Sem Grades

My first viewing of this movie was when i was eleven years old. It was being aired on the Friday night late show. I found it to be a gripping tale of a Korean war veteran returning home with a heroin addiction which was brought on from battle wounds recieved during the conflict.After that point was established you tend to feel for Johnny Pope and his family. A hero in his fathers eyes with his brother Polo paling in comparison in dads opinion. Johnny's wife and brother do everything they can to cope with his addiction and keep John Sr. in the dark about it building to the eventual climax when the truth comes out.A well written and acted tale that left an impression on me.

I have had relatives addicted to street drugs. As this film shows, overdose is the least of your worries. Addicts not only throw their own lives away, they drag their loved ones down with them. They not only destroy the love you have for them but they endanger your life along with theirs. They make the character more sympathetic by being a veteran with PTSD. This film should be shown in all schools starting in third grade. Although realistic it is still more sanitized that reality.

A Korean war veteran (Don Murray) has developed a raging heroin habit which he hides from his pregnant wife (Eva Marie Saint)and his father (Lloyd Nolan). He has those classic "I've got a monkey on my back" mannerisms which the audience can appreciate, while the wife and father wonder why he seems nervous all the time. His dealer, a character known as Mother, played by Henry Silva, and Mother's sidekick, a beatnik type known as Chuch, played by Gerald S. O Laughlin, are memorable characters. Murray is great as his desperation grows, in debt to Mother, trying to keep his problem a secret, pushed to the extreme. The powerhouse drama features an utterly fantastic role, played by Anthony Franciosa, as Murray's heavy drinking brother, who protects Murray but is in love with his wife at the same time. It could have all been too stagey, but thanks to director Fred Zinneman, there's action to spare in this gritty New York drama.

Ah...the wealth of info that this website provides...never knew that our old pal Michael Gazzo wrote this play/screenplay...another piece of "Godfather" trivia I can now pepper my pals with....

And William Hickey's voice was a marvel of genetic engineering even back in his debut film...

"Hatful" may appear somewhat dated by today's standards and the direction and performances still seem more stage than film-oriented..but love seeing the old Brooklyn waterfront and those ESSO gas signs again...and the cast puts in a fine day's work...

If you liked this one...put "The Lost Weekend", "Man With The Golden Arm" and "Days of Wine and Roses" on the to-do list for comparison shopping purposes.

(And for you Tony Franciosa fans out there...you can now turn your attention to line 2 of Tom Waits' "Goin' Out West").....

Good drama showing how a family can be far different than what it appears when certain members refuse to live in the present. Nolan was good as the bantam rooster of a father and Franciosa shone as the drunken yet solid older brother. As always Silva, with that cruel face, was well cast as a heartless pusher whose love for money can only lead to disaster. I wanted to slap his hyper little helper; what a creep.