Convicts 4

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.

And it was the cast in that interested me into watching Convicts 4 in the first place. And while the film is well made with a realistic prison setting, it was the acting that helped to make the film more than it actually was for me. Ben Gazzara is terrific as is Sammy Davis Jnr. Stuart Whitman is also very good and well-meaning, and Ray Walston looks as though he is having a whale of a time. Rod Steiger and Vincent Price's performances are more like cameos, but they are memorable, particularly Price in a role that had shades of the sort of roles he excelled in. Timothy Carey is the only one who didn't really register with me, doesn't help that here his role is there but little is done with it to make it stand out. Aside from the production values and the acting, I was left unengaged on the whole. Convicts 4(not sure if I know the significance of the title) is not a terrible film, but at the same time it isn't something I recommend. The film as a whole is rather stagy with a fair bit of talk in the dialogue(at times it felt like too much), at the same time it is rather ordinary and slow-moving, and I don't think there was a moment despite the actors that I fully invested in any of the characters. The direction is competent, but doesn't have anything that stands out as particularly unique or memorable. Overall, has interest value and I cannot deny that the acting is very good but it didn't really engage me in other areas and as an overall film. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Imagine BIRD MAN OF ALCATRAZ as directed by Roger Corman and written by Lord Buckley, with a last minute polish by the writing staff of MAD magazine. Welcome to the singular, funky, and altogether strange world of CONVICTS 4. While the title may suggest a Rat Pack romp, it's actually a prison flick that's hard to pigeonhole -- part inspirational, part beatnik, and all nutzoid. The movie itself looks plenty beat too, so drab and chintzy in appearance that the actual Folsom State Prison locations seem like sound stages leased from Gravis Mushnik.

The story focuses on the big house adventures of real-life artist John Resko (Ben Gazzara), who won a last-minute reprieve from execution and served an eighteen year stretch in the poky during which his talent for painting was discovered and nurtured. While ostensibly taking place in the 1930s and '40s, the film is willfully, almost gleefully anachronistic, from the hipster-heavy dialog to the post-modern jazz music (strongly reminiscent of Fred Katz's BUCKET OF BLOOD/LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS score).

It is also populated with more stars than there are in psychotronic heaven, making this the HOW THE WEST WAS WON of screw loose hoosgow films. Luminaries guilty of first degree scenery-chewing include Sammy Davis Jr. As Wino, the walking razor blade, Ray Walston as Iggy, the comic psycho, Rod Steiger as Tiptoes, the sadistic screw, Jack Albertson as Teach, the hepcat art teacher, Broderick Crawford as Jabba the warden, and, as a loquacious con, the great Timothy Carey in a show-stopping display of unbridled weirdness. Convict Carey doesn't just chew the scenery, he gorges on everything in sight -- castmates, prison bars, you name it -- and still looks hungry for more.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

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.

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.