Brute Force Trivia Quiz

Answer: Richard Brooks, Mark Hellinger, William Daniels

Furthman, Jessel and Garmes were the team behind "Nightmare Alley" (1947, same year as "Brute Force"), Felton, Rubin and Diskant worked on "The Narrow Margin" (1952, and starring Charles McGraw, who had a small role in "Brute Force" as a con named Andy!), and Bodeen, Lewton and Musuraca created many of the famed B-horror films at RKO, such as "Cat People" and "I Walked With A Zombie".

Brooks was best known as a writer-director and "Brute Force" was an early script of his; he made his directorial debut with 1950's "Crisis" and went on to lens "Blackboard Jungle", "In Cold Blood" and "Elmer Gantry" from Sinclair Lewis' novel, which won Lancaster a Best Actor Oscar. (Brooks later wed "Gantry" star Jean Simmons.)

Ex-journalist Hellinger made his mark (no pun intended!) producing 1946's "The Killers", which was Lancaster's screen debut. He'd go on to produce and narrate "The Naked City" the year after "Brute Force". Sadly, it would be his last film; he died of a heart attack soon after the film's release.

William Daniels was Garbo's favorite cinematographer, lensing her in such films as "Anna Karenina" and "Anna Christie", her first talkie. In "Brute Force" he did an about-face, capturing the gritty reality of prison life. For "Naked City" he won the Oscar.

Answer: Westgate Penitentiary

Gotham State Penitentiary appeared in the old 60's "Batman" show; the others are fictional.

We see Westgate's name in the very first shot of the film, in fact! On the side of a guard tower is Westgate Penitentiary. It's a torrential rain that opens this grim film, to the strains of the great Miklos Rozsa, who was as synomynous with film noir as he would be with epics (his first noir score was for Wilder's "Double Indemnity" and his dum-de-dum-dum motif for "The Killers" would appear on the "Dragnet" TV show!)

Answer: It's on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge.

The legendary Alcatraz Prison is on an island in San Fransico Bay, but fictional Westgate is connected to the mainland by a bridge. A great iron drawbridge/door separates the prison from the outside world.

Answer: a drainpipe

The drainpipe is seen just outside the prison's main wall. One con remarks "Nobody knows where that drainpipe is goin', or where it'll come out, or even if it'll ever be used." As the film opens, one prisoner has just died working in the pipe and exits the prison in a hearse.

Answer: Sir Lancelot

The other three are legendary reggae singers. Cliff starred in the cult film "The Harder They Come" (1973).

Calypso singer Sir Lancelot (1902-2001) was born Lancelot Victor Edward Pinard in Trinidad. He's best known for appearing in such Lewton thrillers as "I Walked With A Zombie"; his last film was Anthony Quinn's remake of DeMille's "The Buccaneer" (1958). Lancelot's "Calypso" acts as the film's Greek Chorus, his songs often telling the audience of future plot developments.

Answer: a fellow prisoner's corpse taken to burial

In the downpour that opens the film, Lancaster's Joe Collins sees the body of fellow inmate, Frankie McLaine, exit through the great iron door for burial. McLaine died while working in the drainpipe. Collins knows sadistic Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is responsible and Collins' hatred of Munsey is evident. Collins' cellmates in cell R17 also watch the scene, including McLaine's replacement, ex-pug Kid Coy (Jack Overman).

When asked if everything's okay, Collins snaps back "What's okay? Nothing's okay until we're out! Get that? Out!" Once you see Lancaster's face as he says this, you don't forget it!

Answer: Wilson

Gallagher (Charles Bickford), Lister (Whit Bissel) and Miller (Sam Levene, who co-starred with Lancaster in "The Killers") aren't the stoolies; neither do they kill squealer Wilson (James O'Rear). In the prison machine shop, as a fake riot breaks out, Wilson is forced back into a stamping press by Kid Coy, Spencer (John Hoyt) and ex-G.I. "Soldier" Becker (Howard Duff, in his film debut), wielding blowtorches.

While the film is on the cons' side, this still powerful scene shows how hardened they are by prison life and how ruthlessly they execute traitors among them!

Answer: prison newspaper

Bickford's Gallagher, a former gang boss, runs the "Westgate News", the prison newspaper. He is at first against Collins' prison break plan. He has always tried to help keep peace in Westgate, helping both inmates and guards, and is sure of his eventual parole.

But when Bissel's Lister commits suicide in cell R17, Warden Barnes (Roman Bohnen) cancels all paroles indefinitely. An enraged Gallagher now realizes Munsey was behind Lister's suicide and weakling Barnes has knuckled under to the sadistic head guard all along. Contacting Collins through a message in a sandwich during lunch break in the drainpipe, Gallagher now throws in with Collins.

Answer: Flossie

Veda is the murderous, spoiled brat of "Mildred Pierce" (1946), so memorably played by Ann Blyth, who is Collins' wheelchair-imprisoned love, Ruth. Phyllis, the blond villaness of "Indemnity" was played by Barbara Stanwyck, and Cora, from "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), was played by Lana Turner.

Ex-model Anita Colby was Flossie, Spencer's date in a Florida casino. She helps him escape during a police raid, but he forgets she has his gun, which she took so he wouldn't get caught with it in the raid! At gunpoint, she forces him to fork over his money and she takes his car. This silent scene is actually the funniest one in the movie(!) and Spencer holds on to this memory to endure the harsh life in Westgate.

Answer: The Egg And I

"The Egg And I" was also made by Universal, and was based on the bestseller by Betty McDonald. We see Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert tend over chicks on the prison screen, while Lister is informed by Munsey that his wife's divorcing him. (In the second flashback, we see that Lister was arrested for stealing from his company to get his wife [Ella Raines] a fur coat.) We see Lister's body hanging from the cell's ceiling. When all paroles are cancelled, Gallagher joins Collins' escape plot.

"The Egg And I" also spawned the long running "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, starring Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main.

Answer: Hill 633, Soldier

Hill 633 was a enemy-held hill Soldier and his fellow G.I.'s had to take in Italy. While the German guns were firing on the rest of the regiment, Soldier and his group attacked from another side and took the hill. Soldier took the rap for his wife's muder of her treacherous father, when Soldier brought them food. (The wife, Gina, was played by Yvonne DeCarlo, who would co-star with Lancaster in 1949's "Criss Cross") The meaning of the message: the tower guards have only one machine gun and can't cover the yard and the drainpipe at the same time! Collins has his ace in the hole ...or so he thinks...

Answer: cancer

Blyth's Ruth is light years from her monsterous Veda in "Mildred Pierce". Collins met her while fleeing a crime and hiding out in her aunt's house. Through his lawyer he learns she refuses to take an operation that will save her life unless Collins is there with her. This triggers Collins' drive to escape Westgate.

Answer: Wagner's "Tannhauser" Overture

In an amazing scene, Munsey, clad in his T-shirt, tortures Miller, a reporter on the prison newspaper, for information on the escape plan. The "Tannhauser" Overture blares as Munsey pummels Miller with a rubber truncheon, but Miller heroically dies without spilling the plan. Wagner was the favorite composer of Hitler and no doubt the use of Wagner was meant to evoke the Nazi horrors!

Answer: Stack

Jeff Corey plays Stack, who tips Munsey of Collins' plan. He inadvertantly tells Collins of this when he asks his fellow cons which position they want when they make the break. All say Collins should decide until Stack says he wants the last place in line. Dr. Walters (Art Smith), sympathetic to the cons, has warned Collins of the informer in their midst. Stack is tied to the minecar and is first to die under the machine gun outside the drainpipe.

Answer: False

Gallagher, Collins and all the men of cell R17 die in the attempt to escape. Gallagher decides to take a million-to-one shot and ram the gate with a truck, but to no avail. Shot in the back, Collins makes it up the tower starircase to fight with Munsey as the tower burns around them. Gallagher sees Collins kills Munsey and toss the latter's body to the cons below, but the riot is put down with tear gas and Collins dies in the flames.

As Dr. Walters says in that last grim scene "Nobody escapes! Nobody ever really escapes!"