B films are usually poorly put together, don't usually have mainstream names, even for 1951. But I read several places it's a B film but I actually don't think it is. I may be wrong. I love film noir films; many people do. It's the edge, I think. This is a different type of film noir, this has a philosophical slant to it. It's mainly in the beginning, and part of the middle, and a bit at the end. But it's there. If you're into philosophical thought, as I am, then the slowness of the beginning shouldn't bother you too much, or perhaps it will, I don't know. Didn't for me.
I read a few external/internal reviews that the fight scene was too long. It lasted two minutes (I timed it). I've seen Western B films where fight scenes lasted up to ten minutes. Two minutes is nothing.
My favorite two characters were Connie Carter (Mercedes McCambridge) who sings a couple of songs but good songs, and Ezra Thompson (James Barton). Maybe because they brought humor to where humor probably shouldn't have been in such a bleak story. The story is simple: man goes to death row for a murder he didn't commit but gets commuted because apparently he's insane so goes to an asylum. He escapes the asylum to find out if he actually is crazy and committed the crime. Someone helps him out but a few weeks later he gets caught and that's where it usually ends but not in this. He made friends and they choose to prove his innocence.
There was one part that you do find in B Westerns I didn't care for: shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand. That is only easy when it's setup to be easy. And, in these old films you rarely see them aim handguns so just a regular cop shooting a gun at a bad guy's hand isn't guaranteed to work. I felt up to that point, for the times, everything was plausible. That scene prevented me from giving this a 9/10.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
I read a few external/internal reviews that the fight scene was too long. It lasted two minutes (I timed it). I've seen Western B films where fight scenes lasted up to ten minutes. Two minutes is nothing.
My favorite two characters were Connie Carter (Mercedes McCambridge) who sings a couple of songs but good songs, and Ezra Thompson (James Barton). Maybe because they brought humor to where humor probably shouldn't have been in such a bleak story. The story is simple: man goes to death row for a murder he didn't commit but gets commuted because apparently he's insane so goes to an asylum. He escapes the asylum to find out if he actually is crazy and committed the crime. Someone helps him out but a few weeks later he gets caught and that's where it usually ends but not in this. He made friends and they choose to prove his innocence.
There was one part that you do find in B Westerns I didn't care for: shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand. That is only easy when it's setup to be easy. And, in these old films you rarely see them aim handguns so just a regular cop shooting a gun at a bad guy's hand isn't guaranteed to work. I felt up to that point, for the times, everything was plausible. That scene prevented me from giving this a 9/10.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it.