Canon City (1948)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Best movie ever!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Several of the toughest inmates in a Colorado state penitentiary near Canon City (pronounced 'Canyon City') are planning a getaway. They include Jeff Corey and Whit Bissell, both serving time in solitary. One of the inmates tries to get Scott Brady to join them, but he refuses. However, after hearing he won't be up for parole for another 10 years, he gives in. The group of 12 men manage to escape, and end up in a snowstorm. They split up and take several families hostage in search of guns, food and cars, while the authorities try to capture them.Apparently based on an actual prison break that happened a year earlier from that same prison, the movie even includes the actual warden as himself! Starting off with the authoritarian voice-over of Reed Hadley, the voice-over then becomes the (unseen) interviewer of the warden, which was weird to say the least. The first 20 minutes or so of the movie also includes several interviews with actual inmates, as well as actual prison life footage. Quite interesting, esp a long-time inmate (50 years!) who said he didn't want to be released anymore, as he had nothing outside to live for.Once the movie really starts, it moves at a rapid pace. Breaking out of prison seemed pretty easy tho, which makes you wonder why the warden looked so smug in the intro?! In any case, as the split up groups of escapees invade several homes, the movie becomes quite suspenseful. The tensest scenes are those where Corey ('Follow Me Quietly') is inside the home of an elderly couple, and the wife, Mabel Paige, tries to knock him down using a hammer. Brady ('He Walked By Night') in his first big role, is depicted as a stand-up guy who made a mistake once. He prevents a fellow inmate from raping a teenage girl, and later on allows a family to take their son to hospital for an appendix surgery. It's a bit too good to be true but I didn't mind it too much. Even the moralizing end of the movie isn't too overdone.The movie was directed by Crane Wilbur, who directed/wrote a couple of prison movies around this time including 'Outside The Wall'. He does pretty well here, aided by a lot of location shooting in and around the prison. The cinematography by noir legend John Alton is decent and occasionally even inspired, but this is far from his best work. There are way better prison noirs out there, and this one's just noir-ish really, but it's entertaining and the intro offers a bit of a glimpse into 40s prison life. 6/10

Corny opening with an off screen narrator, Reed Hadley, telling the audience that the movie is based on a true story and then introducing us to a few of the inmates of the Colorado State Penitentiary. The narrator then has an interview with the actual warden of the prison, Roy Best. Jim Sherbondy is basically a good man but realizing that he has ten long more years to serve for a crime committed while very young agrees to help in a prison break. Sherbondy and eleven other inmates make their break in the dead of winter during a snow storm. The narrative then follows each of the prisoners as they are killed or recaptured. While Scott Brady is very good in the role of Sherbondy, it's Mabel Paige that steals the show. The brief scene where she clobbers (I wanted to say "nails") the Jeff Corey character with a hammer is priceless. She is so expressive - both scared and determined at the same time. Interesting enough, the other "regular citizen" hero of the movie is also a woman. How refreshing is that? The movie keeps one's interest throughout.

This movie proudly bears the label of a semi-documentary and comes complete with the usual Foreword about all the incidents being portrayed exactly as they happened, and all photographed on their actual locations, using real warders, guards and convicts, etc.Personally, I doubt that the movie was shot in its entirety inside the actual prison — there's even a credit for 2nd unit direction and photography. But be this as it may, the studio material is certainly extremely well integrated with the location footage. Credit for this achievement is mostly due to John Alton, whose masterful photography makes Canon City must watching for connoisseurs. True, Alton's work here is less tantalizing than usual as he was required to match up his shots with Strenge's rather dull location work. Nonetheless, there are still more than a few indications (the profile silhouette on Brady's face) of genius behind the camera.Crane Wilbur's screenplay is less praiseworthy, but typical of that writer's detached, tabloid newspaper-style approach. He loves the sort of narrated rhetoric employed by contemporary newsreel commentators (Reed Hadley does a good job here with the actual narration), but fortunately his dialogue is less flowery and more realistic.Generally Wilbur's direction rates as rather dull, but here his handling is even occasionally inventive, although his experiments are not always successful (as for example in the oddly oblique use of the first-person camera right at the beginning, with the on-screen characters swapping words with the disembodied narrator).In all, however, the film emerges as a reasonably engrossing prison melodrama, convincingly acted (except oddly by the non-professionals), compellingly photographed, and tautly written. Despite its foregone conclusion, the storyline does build up a moderate amount of excitement and tension.

For anyone who enjoys mid-20th century movies, "Canon City" is a perfect choice. I had the good fortune to watch this movie in the wee hours of the morning, when old black-and-white movies are best viewed. Tension abounds in this surprisingly gripping story. That it's based on real events and filmed on location is a plus. If you have ever visited the Royal Gorge Bridge and tram in Colorado, you will enjoy the cat-and-mouse chase scene near the end of the movie. The women are heroic in this film, much more so than the men. With their calming words, warm food, hot cocoa, and hammer-wielding ways, they demonstrate courage in the face of danger. "Star Trek" fans will find a treat in the prisoner known as Smalley. He is played by DeForest Kelley, best known to Trekkies everywhere as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. "Canon City" is a thoroughly enjoyable film. Catch it on late-night TV if you can.