They All Come Out

Short film made into a full length feature. It highlights how the prisons attempt to rehabilitate people, since most of them will be rejoining society when their sentence is complete. Stars rita johnson as kitty carson (can't help but think of kit carson, famous american outdoorsman, fighting man.) she's the moll for the madigan gang, which is sent up after pulling a bank job. They try to rehab joe (tom neal) and kitty. Reno the boss was sent to alcatraz. And it looks like actual footage from alcatraz and chillicothe prisons. The prison psychiatrist was charles lane; for a time, he held the record for playing the most bit parts in films. Not sure if that's still true. They sure weren't very delicate about the phsych prison...they show us the sign that says "U. S. hospital for defective delinquents." real nice. The film is okay... seems to be a propaganda piece instructing crooks on what to expect when the enter prison. Probably would have been more enjoyable if they dropped the extra boring intro and epilogue at the beginning and end. Directed by jacques tourneur, who had been doing mostly shorts prior to this. Actress rita johnson died at 52 from trauma caused by a hair dryer falling on her head. Bizarre. Tom neal died at 58.

"They all came out" is the first feature film made by Jacques Tourneur in US, after a series of short features directed for MGM in the 1930s.

In fact this one too first was conceived to be a short documentary about federal prisons. In his interview given in 1964 to Simon Mizrahi, Tourneur describes complicated story of the making of the movie. First director went to Washington where he visited different prisons in order to film documentary. When the short film was ready, Louis B. Mayer saw it and asked Tourneur to add more 20 minutes of footage and turn it into something of a half-feature, as an experiment. At this time Tourneur in cooperation with John Higgins wrote a story, which became the story of the film, about a young man that goes out of jail and tries to re-enter normal life while his former friends prepare to commit another crime and drag him along. Tourneur filmed it and showed it to L. B. Mayer again, who end up liking it and asking director to add 1/2 hour more and turn it into feature film. Tourneur and Higgins had to put all their imagination to work in order to invent some new scenes and make movie longer. After seeing the film it was virtually impossible to understand that it went through these three stages in it´s making unless you knew all about it before. Quite an interesting early work from Jacques Tourneur, worth seeing for addicted movie buff only. 7/10

"They All Come Out" is a most unusual film from MGM. In some ways, it's a traditional crime drama but about midway through the picture it changes to a pseudo-documentary about the prison system and how it sorts prisoners according to their willingness to be rehabilitated.

When the story begins, Joe (Tom Neal) is out of work and hungry. When he meets Kitty (Rita Johnson) he thinks his luck is improving, as she buys him some food and takes him with her on a cross-country drive. However, she works for Reno Madigan, a career criminal who runs a gang who robs banks. Soon, Joe is their driver and soon after that, the gang is captured.

The next portion of the story shows a very detailed account about how federal prisons operated back in the day. Much time in the film is spent showing how the prisoners are sorted according to their likelihood of being rehabilitated. Joe is a first-time offender, and they offer his job training and more. Reno, naturally, is NOT an ideal candidate and his behaviors soon result in his being sent to Alcatraz. But there's much more to it than this...as well as an exciting and satisfying finale.

Despite the film seeming a bit overly idealistic at times, it never is dull and first time director Jacques Tourneur did a great job with this B-movie. It also helped that despite being a B, the budget was bigger than usual and allowed for filming at various penitentiaries across the nation. Worth your time.

This was on TCM for the first time in years the other day, and at first I was surprised at how much it seemed like a documentary - specifically one of the "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts MGM did. Actually, it started out that way and Louis Mayer liked it so much he asked that it be expanded into a feature film. Tom Neal stars as Joe Cameron, made an unemployable vagrant by a wounded hand that made him unfit for manual labor and with him not knowing a trade, on the road he went, often picked up by the police for not having a dollar. Hungry, he orders a big meal at a diner that he knows he can't pay for and is bailed out of his troubles by gun moll Kitty Carson (Rita Johnson). This is how he winds up entangled with Reno Madigan's gang, with the job of driving for them whenever they pull jobs.

At first they live it up, but they are eventually captured. But not before Reno and Joe hide 33K in stolen loot but do not tell the others about it. The rest of the film is about how the federal prison system treats each one of the gang - even operating on Joe's hand and teaching him a trade. The lesson seems to be that the feds know who is redeemable and who isn't, and if you're not it's off to "The Rock" - Alcatraz. Before their capture, Joe and Kitty seem to have an understated romance going, and during their imprisonment they are allowed to write letters where this romance seems to blossom. But against them when they get out is their record, local papers looking for sensational stories, and then there is still Reno inside prison expecting Joe to help spring him with the 33K they hid. And Reno has friends on the outside.

I doubt that the federal prison system was ever that good, and even if it was, I doubt a prison psychiatrist could just talk a seemingly crazy man out of believing he had women in his pockets and cure him with talk alone.

imdb currently rates this as a 6/10, but knowing its roots as a short/documentary, I'd give it a 7/10. The leads give real depth to their rather rushed performances, and it is an interesting tale.

How can you not like a movie that features a bad guy getting a blowtorch to the face when threatening the handsome young naive hero? And action scenes where they just speed up the film? Good fun.