Canon City (1948)

the audience applauded

Good concept, poorly executed.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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

Canon City (1948)A simple loud warning up front--the first twenty minutes or so is a horrible, stiff, documentary kind of lead-in to the movie proper. When the dramatic action gets going, it becomes fully a movie with suspense, character, speed, and even at times complexity. In fact, you could even fast forward to where you see the buy in the jail cell doing a model of a ship. The stuff before that is not needed. It tells us what we already know about prison, though it seems to use real inmates in brief interviews, as if to set up the later jailbreak as something more tangible and believable. It isn't giving anything away to say that some inmates escape--that's the whole hook of the movie--and then what happens to each group or individual in their attempts to get out of Canon City is what drives the movie in a series of somewhat independent vignettes. The encounters with regular town people in their homes is a little contrived but also has the edge of fear to it, and suspense. It works pretty well, the cops gradually closing in on this or that escapee.The end result is still almost a public relations piece about the prison system, about ordinary Americans who rise up and do heroic things, and about the different kinds of attitudes of the inmates, who are people after all. I actually liked the second half of the movie, even it it wasn't completely original or brilliant. The acting is meant to be believable in a vernacular kind of way, and it is. Give it a look, especially if you like prison flicks.

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.

Directed by veteran film-maker Crane Wilbur this rousing prison story is based on actual events that occurred at the Canon City penitentiary in Colorado in 1947.Newcomer Scott Brady is excellent as a convict who,caught up in events, must join in with eleven other escapees.As the fast-paced film-noir unfolds,each event is chronicled by that wonderful narrator Reed Hadley in semi-documentary fashion.A fine cast of character actors round out the cast; Jeff Corey as the ruthless convict leader,Stanley Clements,Robert Bice,and ( against type) Whit Bissell as a nervous killer.Actress Mabel Paige is particularly good as a very brave housewife.This film is another great example of Eagle-Lion pictures during that corporation's short run.