BRUTE FORCE (DVD) DVD

Brute Force
Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast Burt Lancaster as Joe Collins Hume Cronyn as Capt. Munsey Charles Bickford as Gallagher Yvonne De Carlo as Gina Ann Blyth as Ruth Ella Raines as Cora Howard Duff as Soldier Roman Bohnen as Warden Barnes Howland Chamberlain as Gaines Edmund Cobb as Bradley Anita Colby as Flossie Jeff Corey as Freshman Jay C. Flippen as Hodges Richard Gaines as McCollum John Harmon as Roberts John Hoyt as Spencer Sir Lancelot as Calypso Sam Levene as Louie Charles McGraw as Andy James O'Reare as Wilson Jack Overman as Kid Coy Kenneth Patterson as Bronski Frank Puglia as Ferrara Wally Rose as Peary Art Smith as Dr. Walters Tom Steele as Machine Gunner #1 Ray Teal as Jackson Crane Whitley as Armed Guard in Drain Pipe

Crew John De Cuir - Art Director Bernard Herzbrun - Art Director Jules Buck - Associate Producer Jacques Gordon - Consultant/advisor Rosemary Odell - Costume Designer Fred Frank - First Assistant Director Jules Dassin - Director Edward A. Curtiss - Editor Miklos Rozsa - Composer (Music Score) Bud Westmore - Makeup William H. Daniels - Cinematographer Mark Hellinger - Producer Charles Wyrick - Set Designer Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer David S. Horsley - Special Effects Robert Pritchard - Sound/Sound Designer Richard Brooks - Screenwriter Robert Patterson - Short Story Author

Brute Force
Although dismissed by auteur critic Andrew Sarris for its social commentary, Jules Dassin's masterful oir, which more than lives up to its title, is a wildly stylized tour of a prison in which the inmates are running the asylum. Still one of the harshest and grimmest of all oirs, it places a young, magnetic Burt Lancaster in a dungeon-like environment apparently just this side of Transylvania. Contrary to expectation, the prisoners are an amazingly soulful lot, with a dubiously high proportion doing time as a result of what they did for love. And they're models of mental health compared to the staff, which includes a shaky warden, an alcoholic doctor, and Hume Cronyn, as the indelibly fascistic guard, Capt. Munsey. The hounding of a stool pigeon into a steam press by blowtorch-bearing cons is typical of the facility's daily recreation. While some of the speechifying can be tedious, and the filmmakers have clearly loaded the dice in favor of the inmates, the character of Munsey remains a compelling portrait of a grotesquely authoritarian personality. Miklos Rosza's brooding score and William H. Daniels' moody photography are vital elements in the film's impact. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
 

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General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini A new interview with Paul Mason, editor of Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture Theatrical trailer Stills gallery Plus: A new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, a 1947 profile of producer Mark Hellinger, and rare correspondence between Hellinger and production code administrator Joseph Breen over the film's content DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 98 min   DVD Chapters: Disc #1 -- Brute Force 1. Logos/Opening Credits [2:07] 2. "Your Last Look at Frankie" [4:57] 3. "What's Okay?" [1:27] 4. Captain Munsey Visits the Mess Hall [3:30] 5. A Very Important Meeting [5:16] 6. News of Ruth [1:19] 7. "Wilson, 10:30" [5:45] 8. Westgate News [3:12] 9. Flossie [4:25] 10. Infirmary, Movies [2:39] 11. Lister's Wife [5:41] 12. The Warden's Address [1:28] 13. Cell R17 [3:42] 14. Gallagher's Parole [2:23] 15. The Drainpipe [4:07] 16. The Chapel [2:26] 17. "In or Out?" [3:11] 18. Soldier's Tale [3:15] 19. "What Makes You Drunk?" [:35] 20. Ruth [6:27] 21. "I Always Do As I'm Told" [4:25] 22. Louie's Story About the Drainpipe [3:48] 23. Reexamination [5:48] 24. "Ready to Go?" [5:41] 25. Warden Munsey [1:20] 26. 12:15 [2:03] 27. "Why Do They Do It?" [5:07] 28. Color Bars [1:56] 1. Mark Hellinger [2:07] 2. A Unit at Universal [4:57] 3. Lancaster's Suffering [1:27] 4. William Daniels [3:30] 5. Art Smith and the Blacklist [5:16] 6. The Flashbacks [1:19] 7. Fighting the Production Code Office [5:45] 8. Charles Bickford/Richard Brooks [3:12] 9. Dassin's Strengths [4:25] 10. Emphasis on Performance [2:39] 11. "Much More Pathos" [5:41] 12. "Noir Got Away With a Lot" [1:28] 13. Lancaster's Expressionism [3:42] 14. Lancaster as Producer [2:23] 15. Long Takes/Existentialism [4:07] 16. Sacrilege [2:26] 17. Camaraderie in R17 [3:11] 18. Howard Duff/Yvonne de Carlo [3:15] 19. False Values [:35] 20. Metanoir [6:27] 21. Beyond Surface Realism [4:25] 22. Munsey as Fascist [3:48] 23. "This Isn't Going to Turn Out Well" [5:48] 24. Hellinger and the Studios [5:41] 25. The Basis of Dassin's Later Career [1:20] 26. Postwar Filmmaking [2:03] 27. The Greek Chorus [5:07] 28. Color Bars [1:56]