Canon City (film)


Canon City is a 1948 American film noir crime film written and directed by Crane Wilbur. The drama features Scott Brady, Jeff Corey, and Whit Bissell, along with Warden Roy Best playing himself.

Plot

This account of a violent prison break is a semi-documentary opens with a newsreel type tour of the prison. Led by Carl Schwartzmiller, 12 convicts plan their escape but prisoner Jim Sherbondy is reluctant to go along with the group.

Cast

The film is based on a prison break that occurred at the Colorado State Penitentiary at Cañon City, Colorado on 30 December 1947. Within a week all were killed or captured.

Production

The film was shot almost entirely on location at the site of the Canon City state penitentiary in March 1948. It was originally budgeted at $350,000.

Reception

Critical response

The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote, "Another convincing demonstration that crime, while it may not 'pay,' can be turned to profitable uses by the makers of action films is given by Canon City, a tough semi-documentary job about a prison break in Colorado... Crane Wilbur has held to a realistic line for much of the prison action and in some of the outside episodes. His actors—especially Jeff Corey, who plays the leader of the 'break'—are generally tough, convincing fellows with nothing to recommend in charm. And the movement is swift and dynamic, not unlikely in such affairs."
Critic Dennis Schwartz said of the film, "An unspectacular true story about a prison break that is told in a semi-documentary style. Its saving grace is that it is well presented...This minor work has some resemblance to film noir through the characterization of Sherbondy as someone who is not a hardened criminal, but got into trouble both on the outside and then inside of prison because he made the wrong friends."