Brute Force (1947 film)

Brute Force is a 1947 film noir directed by Jules Dassin, from a screenplay by Richard Brooks with cinematography by William H. Daniels. It stars Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn and Charles Bickford.

On a dark, rainy morning at Westgate Prison, prisoners crammed into a small cell watch through the window as Joe Collins Burt Lancaster returns from his term in solitary confinement. Joe is angry and talks about escape. The beleaguered warden is under pressure to improve discipline. His chief of security, Capt. Munsey Hume Cronyn, is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform on one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment. The often drunk prison doctor Art Smith warns that the prison is a powder keg and will explode if they are not careful. He denounces Munseys approach and complains that the public and government officials fail to understand the need for rehabilitation.Joes attorney visits and tells Joe his wife Ruth Ann Blyth is not willing to have an operation for cancer unless Joe can be there with her. He takes his revenge on fellow inmate Wilson James ORear, who at Munseys instigation had planted a weapon on Joe that earned him a stay in solitary. Joe has organized the brutal attack on Wilson in the prison machine shop but provides himself with an alibi by talking with the doctor in his office while the murder occurs. ........

Source: Wikipedia