Broderick Crawford

Ralph Meeker

Reed Hadley

William Talman

Lon Chaney Jr.

Charles Bronson

Felicia Farr

Roy Roberts

Willis Bouchey

Peter J. Votrian

Robert Bray

William Boyett

Nelson Leigh

Gregg Martell

Bill McLean

Jan Merlin

Joe Ploski

Stafford Repp

Harry Wilson

Charles D. Hall

John C. Higgins

Paul Dunlap

George W. George

Gordon Avil

Aubrey Schenck

John F. Schreyer

Howard W. Koch

George F. Slavin

Action

Thriller

Crime

Big House, U.S.A

Bel-Air Productions

United States of America

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

English