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Brute Force (1947)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,372

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Movie Info

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

G, 1 hr. 34 min.

Drama, Classics

Directed By: Jules Dassin

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1947 Wide

On DVD: Apr 17, 2007

Cast

Burt Lancaster
Joe Collins
Hume Cronyn
Capt. Munsey
Charles Bickford
Gallagher
Yvonne De Carlo
Gina
Ann Blyth
Ruth
Ella Raines
Cora
Howard Duff
Soldier
Roman Bohnen
Warden Barnes
Howland Chamberlain
Gaines
Edmund Cobb
Bradley
Anita Colby
Flossie
Jeff Corey
Freshman
Jay C. Flippen
Hodges
Richard Gaines
McCollum
John Harmon
Roberts
John Hoyt
Spencer
Sir Lancelot
Calypso
Sam Levene
Louie
Charles McGraw
Andy
James O'Reare
Wilson
Jack Overman
Kid Coy
Kenneth Patterson
Bronski
Frank Puglia
Ferrara
Wally Rose
Peary
Art Smith
Dr. Walters
Tom Steele
Machine Gunner #1
Ray Teal
Jackson
Crane Whitley
Armed Guard in Drain Pi...
Vince Barnett
Mugsy
James Bell
Crenshaw
Whit Bissell
Tom Lister
Paul Bryar
Harry
Eddy Chandler
Guard
Virginia Farmer
Sadie
Al Ferguson
Guard
Alex Frazer
Chaplain
Herbert Heywood
Chef
Al Hill
Plonski
Rex Lease
Hearse Driver
Will Lee
Kincaid
Francis McDonald
Regan
Kenneth MacDonald
Frank Marlowe
Prisoner
Howard Mitchell
Guard
Gene Roth
Hoffman
Ruth Sanderson
Miss Lawrence
Glenn Strange
Tompkins
Kippee Valez
Visitor
Peter Virgo
Guard
Billy Wayne
Prisoner
Harry Wilson
Tyrone Homely Prisoner
Guy Beach
Convict Foreman
Rex Dale
Hal Malone
Young Inmate
Don McGill
Max
Blanche Obronska
Young Girl
Samir Rizkallah
Convict's Son

Critic Reviews for Brute Force

All Critics (12) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (1) | DVD (7)

The escape sequence has the spatial intricacy of the heist in Dassin's Rififi, but the tone is tougher, bleaker, and more suspenseful.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Bristling, biting dialog by Richard Brooks paints broad cameos as each character takes shape under existing prison life.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

Producer Joan Harrison, who seems to have profited from a long association with Alfred Hitchcock, and Director Irving Pichel have created mounting suspense which comes to a distinctly surprising and explosive climax as the jury brings its verdict.

March 25, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

Starring Burt Lancaster and cast against type Hume Cronyn, Dassin's first foray into noir is one of the bleakest and most powerful crime prison melodramas ever made, an existential chronicle that also serves as an allegory of American society at large

March 31, 2009 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

First rate all the way.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Moralista, mis�gino e manique�sta, este � um filme terrivelmente datado que tem como principal m�rito o fato de ter sido fundamental para alavancar a carreira de Lancaster.

June 18, 2007 Comment

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

The title says it all in Jules Dassin's bare-knuckle prison thriller, one of the most brutal films about caged men ever made.

April 26, 2007 Full Review Source: MSN.com

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

MSN.com

Tough as sinew and bracing in its raw depictions of entrapment and sadism

April 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk

| Comment

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

This is one of Dassin's best films.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Tom Milne

Time Out

Outdated prison film.

October 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Flashbacks are used to enable the injection of love interests, but the still claustrophobic action and escape attempt make for an explosive climax.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

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Audience Reviews for Brute Force

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Excellent prison escape flick with Burt Lancaster butting heads with sadistic guard Capt. Munsey (a young Hume Cronyn -- imagine a more vicious version of Percy from The Green Mile). Several inmates at Westgate prison have come up dead or injured, and there is some suspicion that Munsey's way of doing his job may be to

March 18, 2010

Cindy I

Super Reviewer

What saves this movie from being a typical prison flick is its good ending although it would have been better without those crappy last lines said by the doctor

February 2, 2009

Arash Xak

Super Reviewer

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