A Dassin Dossier
Mar 25, 2009J. Hoberman’s got a sharp and snazzy piece in the New York Times on American expat director Jules Dassin—just in time for Film Forum’s fifteen-film . . .
United States
1947
98 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
English
383
As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Force was the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.
| Joe Collins | Burt Lancaster |
| Capt. Munsey | Hume Cronyn |
| Gallagher | Charles Bickford |
| Gina Ferrara | Yvonne de Carlo |
| Ruth | Ann Blyth |
| Cora Lister | Ella Raines |
| Flossie | Anita Colby |
| Robert ‘Soldier’ Becker | Howard Duff |
| Director | Jules Dassin |
| Producer | Mark Hellinger |
| Music | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | William Daniels |
| Screenplay | Richard Brooks |
| Story | Robert Patterson |
| Art direction | Bernard Herzbrun and John F. DeCuir |
| Editing | Edward Curtiss |
J. Hoberman’s got a sharp and snazzy piece in the New York Times on American expat director Jules Dassin—just in time for Film Forum’s fifteen-film . . .
Here we are in the dark territories again, the republic of bitternesses and bile known as noir, squaring our jaws against an amoral universe and roaming the rain-wet, lightless American City as if it were a circle of the inferno where backstabbers, goldbricks, and unfortunates march in closed . . .
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9 posts by 4 people updated 12 months ago