Jail
was on everyone’s mind in the fifties. During the war years, prison populations
in the United States had been greatly reduced while inmates were paroled into
the armed services. Yet in the years immediately afterwards crime rates spiked,
heavily taxing the federal prison system as well as those of many states.
Conditions worsened as convict populations rose, leading to an epidemic of
prison riots that swept the country in the early fifties. One source notes twenty
riots in 1952 alone. Inmates blamed overpopulation, inhumane facilities, hard
labor, and rampant corruption as reasons for the unrest — and the
Eisenhower government was ready to listen. In contrast to a veneer of
conservatism, conformity, and material culture, it was an era of progressive
ideas, of the burgeoning civil rights movement, of the rise of the social
sciences, and of sweeping societal reform. The prevailing attitude towards the
prison system underwent fundamental changes, even the nomenclature itself
changed: institutions began to be referred to as correctional facilities rather
than penitentiaries. Prisoners were no longer behind bars solely to be punished
or simply removed from decent society; they were there to be educated,
rehabilitated, and reintroduced as productive citizens.
In
this as in most things, Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon, putting a new spin
on one of the movie industry’s oldest staples: the prison picture. A spate of new movies hit theaters and drive-ins, running the
gamut from prestige to B-grade productions. They focused on men, women, and
juvenile delinquents; gangsters, career crooks, or first-time losers
— surviving on the inside, trying like hell to get out, or headed for the
gas chamber. Exploitation, exposé, film noir, or even glossy melodrama. The
subject of this piece is 1955’s Unchained.
With only 53 votes on IMDb it’s one of the forgotten films of the period
— every one of its reviews was written by someone with vague memories of
seeing it as a youth. Unchained’s
greatest claim to fame is as the source of the Oscar-nominated song Unchained Melody, sung on-screen by
actor Jerry Paris and eventually recorded and made famous by the Righteous
Brothers. It’s a shame, as the film has plenty to offer, especially to those
interested in crime and prison films.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a5ICYbrpNX0/Tv1GW1r3JHI/AAAAAAAABbo/K4mnLssFcsw/s400/Scudder.jpg)
The notion of easy escape forms the dramatic thrust of the film. All of the young men inside are grappling with the idea, while most of the older inmates have made their peace with it. Steve Davitt is a Montana bumpkin doing a first-offender sentence for aggravated assault — he beat up an employee he believed had stolen from him. Davitt is young, entitled, and not used to living by anyone else’s rules. He thinks himself unfairly jailed, and wants to get out to be with his wife and son. Joe Ravens (Jerry Paris), an older man doing time for murder, takes Davitt under his wing spends the majority of Unchained’s brief running time trying to convince Steve to buck up and serve out his small sentence. The unlikely friendship between the older black man and his young white protégé has predictable ups and downs, and culminates in the film’s unexpected and surprising final scene. Along the way there are numerous subplots involving other inmates, most of which riff on Chino’s rule that allows the men weekly contact with members of the opposite sex. A piano player with busted fingers finds love, while a thief with a peroxide blonde realizes she just wanted him for the loot. And of course there are the men that take advantage of the system, trying to gain power or find an easy way out — with plenty of fisticuffs and even a play on the famous blowtorch scene from Brute Force. At each and every turn warden Scudder is involved, helping the good guys and sending the hoods on their way to San Quentin.
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h1t8AleSU88/Tvzx9-0vZ9I/AAAAAAAABbQ/4pssHVCk0HA/s1600/crazylegs_color.jpg)
The
slickest and most ironic bit of casting is Chester Morris as warden Scudder.
Forgotten by the general public, Morris was nevertheless a movie star of the
first order for more than two decades, from the advent of talking films
throughout the forties. He was often cast as a gangster, and his greatest roles
came as the good-looking lead in a pair of crime films, Alibi (1929) for which Morris was a best actor nominee, and The Big House (1930) — the
granddaddy of all Hollywood prison pictures. As a matter of fact, in 1930 Morris
had one of the best years in film history: he was the male lead in seven films,
with eight Oscar nominations between them, including the Norma Shearer best
actress statuette winner, The Divorcée.
In 1941 Morris appeared in his first Boston Blackie film, and would reprise the
role more than a dozen times throughout the decade. The series of immensely
popular B comedies revived his acting career, and led to a further two decades
of television work. Morris’s career would touch seven decades, but ended sadly
when he committed suicide while undergoing cancer treatment in 1970.
In the end, the progressive vision that resulted in a prison like Chino just couldn’t last forever. As American culture transformed throughout the Vietnam era and politicians eventually launched the “war on drugs,” correctional populations increased dramatically. Chino has long ceased to be known as the “prison without walls,” and is depicted in an entirely different light in the 1998 film American History X, in which Edward Norton’s character serves hard time for manslaughter and Chino subjects him to the worst prison life has to offer.
In the end, the progressive vision that resulted in a prison like Chino just couldn’t last forever. As American culture transformed throughout the Vietnam era and politicians eventually launched the “war on drugs,” correctional populations increased dramatically. Chino has long ceased to be known as the “prison without walls,” and is depicted in an entirely different light in the 1998 film American History X, in which Edward Norton’s character serves hard time for manslaughter and Chino subjects him to the worst prison life has to offer.
Unchained (1955)
![stripe](http://i932.photobucket.com/albums/ad170/susqu_fertig/WDL-Stripe-Thin.jpg)
Written, Produced, and Directed by Hall Bartlett
Starring Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch, Jerry Paris, Barbara Hale, and Chester Morris
![stripe](http://i932.photobucket.com/albums/ad170/susqu_fertig/WDL-Stripe-Thin.jpg)
Written, Produced, and Directed by Hall Bartlett
Starring Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch, Jerry Paris, Barbara Hale, and Chester Morris
Cinematography
by Virgil Miller
Based
on the book Prisoners are People by Kenyon
Scudder
Distributed
by Warner Bros.
Running
time: 75 minutes.
I just discovered your blog. What a well-researched, thoughtful, expertly-written piece. This movie's been on my to see list for a while. I'll definitely move it up. I'll definitely be coming back to this blog as well.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't seen it yet, Brute Force is easily my favorite prison picture of the period. It's well worth checking out.
Thanks for the kind words Dave. I like Brute Force a great deal as well - there's even a blow torch scene here in Unchained that is most likely inspired by the one in Brute Force. That's a great blog you've got as well - I'm adding you to my blog roll based on the banner artwork alone!
ReplyDeleteCool. Thanks for the add. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteMark, I saw this film at our local theatre as a supporting feature to the major attraction, many years ago. At the time, our local critics' prediction that the musical theme would be remembered rather than the film, itself, proved correct. My recollection, as a very young person at that time, was that it was an interesting and entertaining film and I thank you for your review.
ReplyDeletecroftrod - no problem, I'm glad you liked it. That must be an amazing critic you have there to have pegged that song!
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteNot so amazing, I am afraid. By the time this film arrived in Australia - in those days it sometimes took, what was considered to be an unimportant movie, up to a year or so reach our shores. By then, "Unchained Melody" was a resounding "hit" on radio and the local critic was not too impressed with this film, hence his remark.
The film itself was released at an "out of city cinema", "The Rex" situated in Fortitude Valley, an inner city suburb of Brisbane, Australia, where it lasted approx a week, before re-appearing at numerous suburban cinemas as a support film.
Well researched and interesting article about this terribly neglected film, thanks! One thing however, in the film, it was African American actor Todd Duncan who sang the song that of course has become one of the most popular songs of all time, not Jerry Parris.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely no evidence that Chester Morris committed suicide. This is one of numerous long-standing, proliferated myths about him that is being debunked in "CHESTER MORRIS: ACTOR BY BLOOD--His Life and Career" (McFarland, 2019), a massive biography which my wife and I are now completing for an August deadline.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I appreciate your comment and wish you luck on your book. However, I'd be curious to see any new facts that would debunk the notion that Morris killed himself. The coroner established that he died of a barbiturate overdose. That doesn't prove that he killed himself, but, of course, it doesn't prove that he didn't. The circumstances of Morris's life and cancer diagnosis, coupled with the disparity between the number of Seconal pills required to make a fatal dose rather simply than induce sleep make suicide a reasonable, and understandable assumption. Even with the lack of a note, I'm sure that's why suicide has been the assumption for decades now.
Delete