2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

mformoviesandmore The basic story is not original, and you always have a feeling that you know how things might go, but ...This is a movie that comes together the way that movies should.Excellent acting by an array of capable performers, great pacing that keeps you hooked but let's you breathe, back-stories are filled in so that you can relate to the prisoners as well as the warders.Burt Lancaster is young and full or fire. Hume Cronyn plays the 'little' captain well as a man with power beyond his capabilities. Given the year of making there may have been more than a dig at Nazi sympathizers. The black and white video makes the conditions all the more stark - as are their options.In an era where movies need to have lots of explosions, fantasy creatures or, pointless swearing to attract an audience it is good to see how a 'proper' movie can be made.

Robert J. Maxwell This story of the half-dozen inmates in Cell R17 of a prison that looks something like Sing Sing is pretty earthy stuff. What a cast. Burt Lancaster is the leader of the attempt to break out. The other cell mates include Jeff Corey, Howard Duff, and Whit Bissell, and John Hoyt -- who was the Martian with three arms in a "Twilight Zone" segment, as well as Decius Brutus in MGM's "Julius Caesar". Charles Bickford is the prison's newspaper editor and Sam Levene is the prison reporter.On the staff side of the cast list, Roman Bohnen is the weak-willed prison warden, Jay C. Flippen and Roy Teal are corrections officers, and Hume Cronyn is superb as the Captain of the Guards.I kept thinking how easily this could have been a film about Stalags or concentration camps in World War II Germany. Escape is hopeless. (The code in 1947 would never have permitted a successful escape from prison.) And Cronyn is a kind of Nazi figure. He's smooth and ingratiating when necessary but his real character is revealed during a hair-raising scene in which he tries to get Sam Levene to spill the beans about the escape plans. Cronyn interrogates Levene and taunts him, while Wagner is playing on the phonograph. When Levene isn't forthcoming, Cronyn pulls down the shades, dismisses the witnesses, and begins beat the handcuffed Levene with a rubber hose.The inmates are all essentially good guys. Flashbacks fill in their back stories. They were either dumb and impulsive or committed a crime to help their marriages or to get money for a girl friend's operation. Either the writer didn't know much about inmate culture or that culture has changed a great deal in the years intervening since its release.At one point, the weakling warden has an interesting, if brief, exchange with the placid Cronyn. Cronyn remarks, "You set the rules, but I have to enforce them." He's right about his awkward position. He belongs to a class that the sociologist Robert Park called "marginal people," along with top sergeants, head nurses, and factory foremen -- not management and not quite labor. Of course, not every person occupying a marginal status needs to caress his rubber hose with such relish.There are a couple of murders, a suicide, and a riot. There's plenty of action. At the same time, prison movies are by their nature depressing. The clothing and surroundings are so bleak and grating that, no matter what happens, one's spirits sink.

PWNYCNY Although somewhat dated, the movie offers an interesting and often compelling glimpse of the attitude toward prisons in the 1940s. Ity was tough being a prisoner. Not only were the inmates jammed into small cells, they had to deal with sadistic and ambitious guards who made life difficult for those inside, especially of you didn't play ball with the powers in charge. Of course, there were those prisoners who refused to play ball and for them there was only one option - escape. But how? With all the snitches working for the guards, how was a prisoner supposed to keep an escape secret? That is the question this movie poses. There are some who may read into this movie a political message, but remember, this is a Hollywood movie and first and foremost a commercial product. Hume Cronyn is great as a sinister and unscrupulous police captain. He carries the movie. The rest of the cast, including Burt Lancaster, ham it up as inmates who want to go from the inside to the outside. Charles Bickford is also excellent as one of the leaders of the inmates. An interesting feature of the movie is the repeated use of flashbacks explaining how the prisoners wound up in jail. Of course, in each case, a beautiful women was involved. Could Howard Duff be expected to let Yvonne De Carlo take the rap? Of course not!

thinker1691 In every society, there are certain men who for lack of a Good Attorney, or perhaps, a bad decision on their part, they find themselves at the receiving end of court inflicted judgment. One thing societies forget or may be they don't want to know, is that the men they have imprisoned, will eventually get out. The harshness of their punishment at the hands of the Warden or the Prison Guards is what drives inmates to remember how to treat their next victim when they do get out. In this Robert Patterson story, " Brute Force " our hero is one Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) who comes to the attention of a most sadistic Captain of the Guards named Munsey (Hume Cronyn) (superior acting) who prides himself in knowing how to rule. His egotistic style pits him against Collins and every other prisoner at the prison. Directed by Jules Dassin, this early Black and White movie is a great example of find casting of superior talent. Men who will make their mark in other superior movies. Men such as Jeff Corey, Jay C. Flippen, Howard Duff and Whit Bissell. Throughout this story, audiences hate to root for the hero, as he is a convict. Nevertheless, when it comes to Burt Lancaster, we cannot help but feel that he may yet succeed. The end result of this memorable film is the making of a Classic and in looking back, few can argue otherwise. Superb Movie. ****