Riot in Cell-Block Eleven

Riot in Cell-Block 11 has some points to make about prison reform, and hammers them home with billy clubs and screaming sirens. Doling out undiluted propaganda, the film presents a semi-documentary account of a prison revolt at Folsom Penitentiary, and between tedious explanations of its causes and effects, packs in some excellent action scenes. As a result, Riot presses its criticism of outmoded prison methods relentlessly in both dialogue and action. The effect is almost too strong.

For sheer propaganda, however, producer Walter Wanger has a masterpiece. The photography of Folsom's long, bare corridors creates an oppressive mood which is seldom relieved, and the contrast between the prison's cold mechanical routine and the sympathetic plight of its convicts is unusually effective. Wanger needed no stars to simulate these convicts, and except for Neville Brant as the chief conspirator, has none. Most of the cast has been supplied by Folsom's good-behavior inmates, whose rioting possesses a good deal of fervor and realism.

Like the riots, the dialogue is of the "set-'em-up" and "knock-'em-down" variety, and this is the film's greatest weakness. Enough leading questions are asked in two hours the fill the agendas of several investigating committees, and the convicts come up with answers which seem superficial at best. But if their answers are pat, they are at least to the point. The convicts riot because they want to inform the public of bad prison conditions, and they hope to put their demands before state officials.

But oddly enough, the rioters prove to be idealists who have gained little for their troubles. Riot in Cell Block 11 concludes on a note of sour realism in harmony with its previous tone. Though the film's propaganda remains both pure and laudable, for entertainment value this is hardly an unmixed blessing.