Rather Bland Characters move around the Cold Concrete Yards and in an out of the Prison Environs with not much Emotion and the Whole Film has a Blase Boring Feel to it. Broderick Crawford is Miscast and Dorothy Malone seems to be getting ready for a Fifties Housewife Template and can't wait to Bake Cookies.Glen Ford is Always Watchable but here He doesn't really do much more than Brood. It is the Supporting Players that Add what Zip there is to this Plodding Penitentiary Drama. The Film has Little Style and while it is all put Together Nicely it is just too Nice Looking and Sterile to be Considered a Superior Prison Picture.

why the district attorney had a soft spot for this specific young man who accidentally hit a man and caused him death? why the district attorney's daughter also had a soft spot for this guy from the very beginning? why this district attorney then became the warden where this young guy was jailed? in nowadays reality, how it possible those arrangements by the new warden could favor to certain prisoners? and how convenient that the district attorney's and then the warden's daughter, an unique beautiful woman would never have a sweetheart or even got married but remained a spinster who only seemed to love the convicted man so subtly albeit so obviously? do you think that a strong-willed district attorney would have encouraged his daughter to befriend a convict felon wholeheartedly from the very beginning? well, unless his daughter was an ugly woman or a crippled woman then this could have been possible, other than that, a normal law enforcer father would never have his beautiful daughter to be near to a convicted fellow. then again, once became a warden, suddenly his home would be in or close to the prison? and he would have the privilege to allow several prisoners to be at his personal service? givemeabreak, will you? this film is just an utopia- like, completely cosmetically beautified picture to show an unrealistic and totally unlikely scenario to suit the purpose of this film. the whole screenplay was like a mirage, if you could believe it, you could believe anything is possible and a carpenter's son could walk on water other than that British street magician, dynamo.

Broderick Crawford, (George Knowland) plays the role of a District Attorney and has to bring to justice a man named Joe Hufford, (Glenn Ford) who was drunk and struck a man in a night club and killed him. George Knowland knew that Joe Hufford was a good man who had an excellent military service record and told Joe he should obtain a good lawyer to represent him in a court of law. However, Joe did not obtain a good lawyer and he had to serve one to ten years as a prison sentence. Years go by and eventually George Knowland becomes the Warden of the prison where Joe Hufford is serving his prison sentence. George Knowland shows some mercy to Joe along with his daughter, Kay Knowland, ( Dorothy Malone ) who starts to fall in love with Joe. There is plenty of problems in this prison and lots of surprises. Great 1950 Classic to view and enjoy.

While Glenn Ford played the lead in this film, in so many ways this was co-star Broderick Crawford's film. Ford's character mostly reacted to events over which he had little control, while Crawford comes off as very thoughtful, tough and has some of the greatest one-liners I've heard in films. While not exactly a Film Noir movie, Crawford's lines are often pure Noir--especially during his first meeting with Ford after Ford's character accidentally killed a man. Crawford is the district attorney who must prosecute Ford and while Crawford is a decent guy and feels sorry for Ford, he must do his job and gets a conviction--even though Crawford tried his best to lose the case.Later, after Ford is in prison, there's a new warden and oddly it's Crawford. This is the first of several very improbably occurrences during the film--the other being when Crawford first arrives at the prison. He is able to quiet a near-riot just by walking through the crowd of convicts in a maximum security prison--while in real life, he would have no doubt been torn apart by the thugs.However, despite all this, the film has many great twists and turns, juicy performances (particularly by the guy playing the squealer, Ponti, who delivers a magnificent performance of a guy who knows he's about to die). This film is never dull nor is it terribly predictable--making it one of the better prison films I have seen. I heartily recommend it.FYI--In a brief scene, you see that one of the inmates is none other than Jimmy Dodd--you know, the leader of the Mouseketeers on the original MICKEY MOUSE CLUB. In addition to this bit part, he also played a convict in the film BIG HOUSE, USA (though he oddly was not credited--maybe his role was too small to bother in this film). Considering Dodd's violent and checkered past, it's surprising they let this ex-con hand around Cubby, Annette and the other kids! ;-)