Big House, U.S.A (1955)

★ 6.6 1h 23m IMDb

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.

Big House, U.S.A

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Cast

Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford as Rollo Lamar Died 1986 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American actor. He is best known for his portayal of Willie Stark in the film All the King's Men (1949), which earned him an Acade...
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker as Geraldo 'Jerry' Barker aka Iceman Died 1988 · Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 – August 5, 1988) was an American actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of Mister Roberts (1948–1951) and P...
Reed Hadley
Reed Hadley as Special FBI Agent James Madden Died 1974 · Petrolia, Clay County, Texas, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Reed Hadley (June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American movie, television and radio actor. Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia in Clay County...
William Talman
William Talman as William 'Machine Gun' Mason Died 1968 · Detroit, Michigan, USA
Lon Chaney Jr.
Lon Chaney Jr. as Leonard M. 'Alamo' Smith Died 1973 · Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973), born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movi...
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson as Benny Kelly Died 2003 · Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "gr...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 10/10 Nov 08, 2013
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

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