Riot in Cell Block 11 [Criterion Collection]

Director: Don Siegel Don Siegel

Overview

The best film of Don Siegel's career to date, this surprisingly intelligent B-picture describes the dramatic arc of an organized rebellion at Folsom prison. The inmates, who are sick of living conditions which include rundown cells, brutal guards, dreadful food, and the presence of the seriously deranged in the general prison population, decide to stage a riot to demand change. Neville Brand stars as Dunn, the vocal prisoner who leads the uprising. After the inmates take some guards hostage, Dunn makes the prisoner's demands for reform known to the warden Emile Meyer. While acknowledging the validity of their grievances, for which he's already harangued politicians without success, he warns them that there's nothing that can be done immediately. As Dunn contacts media outlets to further publicize his cause, word of the riot spreads to other cell blocks, and they too become involved. Fearing a bloody mass insurrection, Meyer reluctantly calls in the militia. Dunn, who thus far has been able to restrain his disturbed cohort Carnie (Leo Gordon) from inciting violence, is beginning to lose control. Considering its limited budget, the film's impressive sense of authenticity derived partly from the experience of veteran producer Walter Wanger, who had spent four months in a minimum security facility for shooting the agent and lover of his wife, Joan Bennet.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/22/2014
UPC:	0715515117814
Original Release:	1954
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:20:00
Sales rank:	18,919

Special Features

New 2K digital restoration; New audio commentary by film scholar Matthew H. Bernstein; Excerpts from the director's 1993 autobiography, A Siegel Film, read by his son Kristoffer Tabori; Excerpts from Stuart Kaminsky's 1974 book: Don Siegel: Director, read by Tabori; Excerpts from the 1953 NBC radio documentary series The Challenge of Our Prisons; PLUS: an essay by critic Chris Fujiwara

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Neville Brand	James V. Dunn
Emile Meyer	Warden Reynolds
Frank Faylen	Commissioner Haskell
Leo Gordon	Crazy Mike Carnie
Robert Osterloh	The Colonel
Paul Frees	Monroe,Monroe
Don Keefer	Reporter
Alvy Moore	Gator
Dabbs Greer	Schuyler
Whit Bissell	Snader
James Anderson	Acton
Carleton Young	Capt. Barrett
Harold J. Kennedy	Reporter
William Schallert	Reporter
Jonathan Hale	Russell
Robert Patton	Frank
Joel Fluellen	Al
Roy E. Glenn Jr.	Delmar
Joe Kerr	Mac
John Tarangelo	Manuel
Robert Burton	Ambrose
Frank Hagney	Roberts,Roberts
Emile G. Meyer	The Warden
Bill Phipps	Mickey
Robert Patten	Frank
Roy Glenn Sr.	Delmar
Herschel Gilbert	Composer

Technical Credits

Richard Collins

Don Siegel	Director
Walter Wanger	Producer
Richard Collins	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Riot in Cell Block 11
1. "Riots Rip U.S. Prison" [4:53]
2. Block 11 [2:54]
3. Night Rounds [2:24]
4. "No Loafing at Desk" [5:45]
5. "You're Either In or Out" [3:57]
6. Combat Ready [4:46]
7. "Good and Bad, Just Like On the Outside" [6:33]
8. Meet the Press [6:13]
9. Block 4 in the Mess Hall [6:12]
10. The Yard [8:12]
11. "One for One!" [5:37]
12. Carnie's Way [9:03]
13. Double Cross [5:55]
14. In the Papers [7:57]
1. Color Bars [:20]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Riot in Cell Block 11
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
   Commentary
      Commentary: On
      Commentary: Off
      Index
         Ripped From the Headlines
         Walter Wagner
         True Stories
         Ex-Con
         Public Perception
         Montage Editing
         Differing Tactics
         New Kind of Prison Film
         Existential Ethos
         Jackson, Michigan
         Aftermath
         Monogram
         Publicitiy
         Rehabilitation
         Color Bars
   Supplements
      Don Siegel on Riot In Cell Block 11
         Play
      Excerpt From Don Siegel: Director
         Play
      The Challenge of Our Prisons
         Play

Editorial Reviews

Don Siegel's trademark violence and near-documentary realism are already on display in the excellent noir from his early career. Richard Collins' carefully researched script takes pains to sidestep prison movie clichés, focusing instead on some of the issues that had struck producer Wanger during his brief prison hitch. Rather than planning to break out, the inmates' riot is based on well-founded demands for reforms that the warden Emile Meyer already agrees with. The warden himself is a humane figure rather than a tyrant, who, like the sharp convict Neville Brand leading the protest, does his utmost to avoid the use of force. Siegel allows events to unfold credibly, as the convicts' plan escalates from seizing some guards to the anarchic frenzy of a full-scale prison riot. The film avoids melodramatic stereotyping, painting characters on both sides of the conflict with surprising complexity. In a way that is rare in films, but common in the work of Siegel, the characters are forced to accept the coefficient of adversity forced upon them by their roles, and no one ever gets exactly what they want. Among a fine cast, Brand, Meyer, Frank Faylen, Robert Osterloh, and former real-life inmate Leo Gordon stand out, and the film's realism is heightened by the crisp black-and-white photography of Russell Harlan.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello