Brute Force (1947)
Brute Force (aka Zelle R 17) is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by Jules Dassin, from a screenplay by Richard Brooks with cinematography by William H. Daniels.
Director – Jules Dassin
Writers – Richard Brooks (screenplay), Robert Patterson (story)
Cast –
Burt Lancaster as Joe Collins
Hume Cronyn as Capt. Munsey
Charles Bickford as Gallagher
Yvonne De Carlo as Gina Ferrara
Ann Blyth as Ruth
Ella Raines as Cora Lister
Anita Colby as Flossie
Sam Levene as Louie Miller #7033
Jeff Corey as “Freshman” Stack
John Hoyt as Spencer
Jack Overman as Kid Coy
Roman Bohnen as Warden A.J. Barnes
Sir Lancelot as Calypso
Vince Barnett as Muggsy
Jay C. Flippen as Hodges – Guard
Richard Gaines as McCollum
Frank Puglia as Ferrara
James Bell as Crenshaw – Convict in Print Shop
Howard Duff as Robert “Soldier” Becker (as Howard Duff – Radio’s ‘Sam Spade’)
Art Smith as Dr. Walters
Whit Bissell as Tom Lister
Watch “Brute Force” (1947)
Plot
On a dark, rainy morning at Westgate Prison, prisoners crammed into a small cell to watch through the window as Joe Collins returns from his term in solitary confinement. Joe is angry and talks about escape. The beleaguered warden is under pressure to improve discipline. His chief of security, Capt. Munsey, is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform on one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment. The often drunk prison doctor warns that the prison is a powder keg and will explode if they are not careful. He denounces Munsey’s approach and complains that the public and government officials fail to understand the need for rehabilitation.
Joe’s attorney visits and tells Joe his wife Ruth is not willing to have an operation for cancer unless Joe can be there with her. He takes his revenge on fellow inmate Wilson, who at Munsey’s instigation had planted a weapon on Joe that earned him a stay in solitary. Joe has organized a fatal attack on Wilson in the prison machine shop but provides himself with an alibi by talking with the doctor in his office while the murder occurs.
Joe presses another inmate, Gallagher, to help him escape but Gallagher has a good job at the prison newspaper and Munsey has promised him parole soon. Munsey then instigates a prisoner’s suicide, giving higher authorities the opportunity to revoke all prisoner privileges and cancel parole hearings. Gallagher feels betrayed and decides to join Joe’s escape plan. Joe and Gallagher plan an assault on the guard tower where they can get access to the lever that lowers a bridge that controls access to the prison.
While the escape plan is taking shape, each of the inmates in cell R17 tells their story, and in every case, their love for a woman is what landed them in trouble with the law. Munsey learns the details of the escape plan from an informer, “Freshman” Stack, one of the men in cell R17, and the break goes badly. The normally subdued prison yard turns into a violent and bloody riot, killing Munsey, Gallagher, and the remainder of the inmates in cell R17, including Joe.