Big House, U.S.A

1955

1h 23m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

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Action

Thriller

Crime

A tough and realistic crime drama unfolds as merciless kidnapper Jerry Barker (Ralph Meeker) demands ransom paid against a young runaway whose fate lands Barker in Casabel Island Prison.

Directors

Howard W. Koch

Writers

John C. Higgins(screenplay by)

George W. George(story by)

George F. Slavin(story by)

Stars

Broderick Crawford

Ralph Meeker

Reed Hadley

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Top cast

Broderick Crawford

Rollo Lamar

Ralph Meeker

Geraldo 'Jerry' Barker aka Iceman

Reed Hadley

Special FBI Agent James Madden

William Talman

William 'Machine Gun' Mason

Lon Chaney Jr.

Leonard M. 'Alamo' Smith

Charles Bronson

Benny Kelly

Felicia Farr

Emily Euridice Evans

Roy Roberts

Chief Ranger Will Erickson

Robertson Lambert

Danny Lambert

Ranger McCormick

Ranger at Park Exit (uncredited)

Nelson Leigh

Madden's FBI Supervisor (uncredited)

Gregg Martell

Accomplice on Fishing Boat (uncredited)

Dipsy (uncredited)

Tommy (uncredited)

Convict (uncredited)

Police Warden Machek (uncredited)

Directors

Howard W. Koch

Writers

John C. Higgins(screenplay by)

George W. George(story by)

George F. Slavin(story by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

I'm gonna kidnap a kidnapper for the money he kidnapped for. Big House, U.S.A. is directed by Howard W. Koch and written by John C. Higgins, George George and George Slavin. It stars Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker, Reed Hadley, William Talman, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson and Felicia Farr. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Gordon Avil. A Kidnap, A Ransom and A Prison Break = Powder Keg. Out of Bel-Air Productions, Big House, U.S.A. is a relentlessly tough and gritty picture. Beginning with the kidnapping of a young boy from a country camp, Howard Koch's film has no intentions of making you feel good about things. Deaths do occur and we feel the impact wholesale, tactics and actions perpetrated by the bad guys in the play punch the gut, while the finale, if somewhat expected in the scheme of good versus bad classic movies, still leaves a chill that is hard to shake off. Split into two halves, we first observe the kidnap and ransom part of the story, then for the second part we enter prison where we become cell mates with five tough muthas. Crawford, Chaney, Meeker, Bronson and Talman, it's a roll call of macho nastiness unfurled by character actors worthy of the Big House surroundings. The locations play a big part in the pervading sense of doom that hangs over proceedings, Cascabel Island Prison (really McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary) is every bit as grim as you would expect it to be, and the stunning vistas of Royal Gorge in Colorado proves to be a foreboding backdrop for much of the picture. Although it sadly lacks chiaroscuro photography, something which would have been perfect for this movie and elevated it to the standard of Brute Force and Riot in Cell Block 11, Avil's photography still has the requisite starkness about it. While Dunlap scores it with escalating menace. Not all the performances are top draw, more so on the good guy side of the fence, and some characters such as Chaney's Alamo Smith don't get nearly enough lines to spit, but this is still one bad boy of an experience and recommended to fans of old black and white crims and coppers movies. 8/10

John Chard08 Nov, 2013