“Behold Film Forum's old-school ode to the bad guy (and gal), which spotlights a criminal lineup!”
– Flavorpill
Click here to read entire article

“Whoever said crime doesn't pay must not have been a filmmaker... Film Forum pays tribute to the best of the genre
with a two-week series packed with the most villainous cons, ex-cons, and misfits to ever grace the silver screen.”
– The Village Voice
Click here to read entire review

Click here to read V.A. Musetto on THE CON FILM FESTIVAL in the New York Post

Click here to see how you can donate books to people in prison

The Osborne Association - Serving Prisoners, Former Prisoners and their Familes

MAY 8/9 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG

(1932, Mervyn LeRoy) “But how do you get along? How do you live?” “I steal.” Out-of-work war vet Paul Muni gets railroaded — twice — onto brutal Southern chain gangs, his only prospect after escaping a life spent perpetually on the run. Based on a true story, the original author was re-captured following post-movie publicity. Approx 93 minutes.
1:00, 4:35, 8:10

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“One of the best of the social protest films, with moments that haunted
a generation and one of the great closing scenes in the history of film.”
– Pauline Kael

“Remarkable!” – Flavorpill

“The final scene ranks among the best of all time.” – Time Out New York

“A picture with guts… everything about it is 100%.” – Variety (1932)

“Still packs a wallop with its bleak and frightening climax.” – Chicago Reader

“A milestone in Hollywood history and a compelling piece of shock entertainment.” – Leslie Halliwell

THE CRIMINAL CODE

(1931, Howard Hawks) Stogie-chomping warden Walter Huston rings endless variations on “Yeah,” as he finds Phillips Holmes, the nice kid he put away as D.A., has fallen for his own daughter — but fellow con Boris Karloff’s knife puts rehabilitation on the back burner. Hawks used a convict committee as script doctors: “They told me the whole ending.” Approx 90 minutes.
2:50, 6:25, 10:00

“RECOMMENDED! Lesser known than Hawks' subsequent Scarface, this taut prison movie in fact holds up a lot better.”
– Time Out New York

“In its stark, clean visual style and its blend of dark humor and violence, the film is a prelude to Hawks's masterful Scarface.”
– Dave Kehr

“No facile moralising here: the fast pacing, grimly realistic atmosphere, and superb performances summon up
a tragic battle of wits and Hawks' totally assured style is reflected in the quick, naturalistic dialogue, quirky black humour,
and the ability to turn potentially risible set pieces into electrifying suspense.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

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MAY 10/11 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

WHITE HEAT

(1949, Raoul Walsh) “Top of the world, Ma!” James Cagney’s Cody Jarrett, a killer so vicious he obliges a car-trunk-stashed prisoner’s plea for better ventilation with bullet holes, ensconces himself on his Mom’s lap while planning his latest caper, then goes memorably berserk in the prison canteen when he hears of her demise. The Oedipal angle was Cagney’s own idea. Approx 114 minutes.
Sun 1:30, 5:35, 9:40
Mon 2:00

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“RECOMMENDED! Cagney steals the show in this crime film decades ahead of its time.”
– Time Out New York

“White Heat = Scarface + Psycho. Despite chronology this is really the fitting climax of the '30s gangster movie.”
– Time Out (London)

“This searing melodrama reintroduced the old Cagney and then some: spellbinding suspense sequences complimented his vivid and hypnotic portrayal.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“Walsh's heroes had a knack for going too far, but none went further than James Cagney as a psychotic punk in this roaring gangster piece.
Pure id, he could be the most unbalanced hero in film noir, yet Walsh's swift, pounding direction keeps you cheering for him up to the famous ending…
the film leaves you drained and weirdly exhilarated.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“The most gruesome aggregation of brutalities ever presented under the guise of entertainment.” – Cue (1949)

“A wild and exciting picture of mayhem and madness.” – LIFE (1949)

ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES

(1938, Michael Curtiz) Two slum kids grow up to be James Cagney and Pat O’Brien — guess which becomes the priest and which the gangster — with Ann Sheridan as their mutual old flame, Humphrey Bogart as the inevitably slimy lawyer, and The Dead End Kids as hood hero worshippers. But does Cagney (Oscar-nominated and NYC Critics’ Best Actor) turn yella en route to the chair? Approx 97 minutes.
Sun 3:40, 7:45
Mon 4:10

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“A gutsy, rousing blend of gangster thriller and social comment. Great performances all round, and enough pace, shadowy camerawork and snappy dialogue to make this one of Warners' most memorable '30s dramas.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“Strikingly directed and photographed and captures the mood of
Warner Brothers at its most naturalistic.”
– Chicago Reader

“A shrewd, slick entertainment package and a seminal movie for all kinds of reasons. It combined gangster action with fashionable social conscience…
it also showed the Warner style of film-making, all cheap sets and shadows, at its most effective.”
– Leslie Halliwell

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Monday evenings May 11-June 8

Tod Browning

Click here for schedule

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MAY 12 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT

(1933, Howard Bretherton & Willam Keighley) Wisecracks fly amidst the drama, as moll Barbara Stanwyck takes over the Big House, in Pre-Code look at women behind bars that had the Hays Office working overtime, due to this prison’s man-hungry — and woman-hungry — inmates. Approx 69 minutes.
1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00

“A trash treasure.”
– Richard Corliss, TIME

“Is any genre more ludicrous fun than the women-behind-bars melodrama? A salacious example.”
– Time Out New York

“A hard-bitten confession yarn, good, entertaining fun.”
– William K. Everson

“Effective when describing the behavior of the prisoners, the variety of their misdemeanors, their positions in the social whirl outside, their ingenuity in giving an intimate domestic touch to the prison, and their frequently picturesque way of exhibiting pride, jealousy, vanity and other untrammeled feminine emotions.”
– The New York Times (1933)

LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE

(1931, Marion Gering) Unsung slimeball great Earle Foxe complicates ex-moll Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond’s wedding day by framing them for murder. Approx 77 minutes.
2:25, 5:25, 8:25

“If the script of Ladies of the Big House seems a bit more authentic than usual,
it may be because it was written by an actual prison convict named Ernest Booth.”
– All Movie Guide

“Powerful in heart appeal.”
– Variety

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MAY 13 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

20,000 YEARS IN SING SING

(1933, Michael Curtiz) Taken from Warden Lawes’ memoir, Curtiz’s semi-doc treatment coupled prison reform pleas with the melodrama goods: Spencer Tracy (replacing Cagney, in the throes of a salary fight) takes the rap for moll Bette Davis’ self-defense killing. Print courtesy Library of Congress. Approx 78 minutes.
NOTE REVISED SHOWTIMES: 2:50, 6:15*, 10:10

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“Fast-moving and still powerful.”– Leslie Halliwell

“Good entertainment with that inside prison touch…” – Variety (1933)

“Tracy is suitably gritty in this taut moral drama. The quasi-documentary scenes of prison life are compelling.”
– Time Out (London)

EACH DAWN I DIE

(1939, William Keighley) “Cagney meets a Raft of trouble!” Framed for murder by a crooked D.A., crusading reporter James Cagney gets railroaded to the pen. Bad enough, but then he thinks he’s been betrayed by new behind-bars pal George Raft, starts freaking out in solitary, and begins to doubt... Justice! Obviously, time for a breakout. Approx 92 minutes.
NOTE REVISED SHOWTIMES: 1:00, 4:25, 8:20

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“With the brilliant acting by James Cagney and the fast-paced and hard-edged direction of William Keighley,
the film clatters past like an express train.”
– All Movie Guide

“Worth seeing for Cagney's alert and nervous acting and the good regulation performance of George Raft...
the picture goes out in a blast of bombs and bullets”
– Graham Greene

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MAY 14 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND

(1936, John Ford) Warner Baxter’s country doctor Samuel Mudd innocently treats a visiting actor’s broken leg, but — he’s John Wilkes Booth, straight from Lincoln’s assassination! Next stop, a hellhole prison in the Florida Keys — and then, yellow fever breaks out. Vintage factual Ford Americana. Approx 95 minutes.
1:30, 5:25, 9:20

“A fascinating, rarely shown flick. Bert Glennon's cinematography turns the prison into a wondrous object of light and shadow.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“A fierce historical drama” – The New Yorker

“Excellent. Memorable as Ford’s only foray into docudrama.” – All Movie Guide

“One of John Ford’s least-known films is also one of his finest. The director elicits an excellent performance from the underrated Baxter, putting him through his paces – Mudd’s attempted escape in shark-infested waters and his ministering to abused prisoners and cruel guards alike during a yellow fever epidemic are especially memorable.”
– American Cinematheque

“Glorious. A prophetic brief on attitudes toward torture.” – Gary Giddins, The New York Sun

LES MISERABLES

(1935, Richard Boleslawski) All for a lousy loaf of bread! Condemned to the prison galleys in early 19th century France, Fredric March’s Jean Valjean escapes, makes two fortunes, battles blackmailers, weaves his way past the bullet-ridden barricades of a revolution to rescue the love of his adopted daughter — but no case is closed for bullet-headed inspector Charles Laughton. Approx 108 minutes.
3:20, 7:15

“Recommended! This gorgeous Toland-shot version
chomps hard on the scenery and is vigorously entertaining.”
– Time Out New York

“The best version of Hugo's novel.” – David Thomson

“Solid, telling, intelligent version. In adaptation and performance
it is hard to see how this film could be bettered.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“Unbelievably thrilling in all departments… a memorable cinematic experience.”
– The New York Times

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MAY 15 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

CAGED

(1950, John Cromwell) “Pile out, you tramps! It’s the end of the line!” Mayhem in the big house, as innocent pregnant teen Eleanor Parker faces off with hardened inmates, kindly warden Agnes Moorehead, and archetypal butch matron Hope Emerson. Both Parker and Emerson were Oscar-nominated for their performances. “An astonishing amount of lesbianism... a total underworld, corrupting and brilliantly drawn.” – Vito Russo. Approx 96 minutes.
1:30, 5:35, 9:40

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“Few genres exert quite the same queasy fascination as the one that focuses on females behind bars. This gritty example is one of the better entries. Surprise: it also features a powerful lesbian subtext.”
– Time Out New York

“Hysterically harrowing, but also effective and powerful.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“Probably the most ferociously effective and polemically potent women's prison film ever made…
In many respects, this Warner Brothers film resembles the best and toughest socially conscious movies turned out by that studio during the 30s.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

I WANT TO LIVE!

(1958, Robert Wise) Convicted for prostitution, perjury, and forgery — okay, the real-life Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward, Best Actress Oscar) was no angel. But was she a murderer? And did she deserve death? Starkly realistic treatment of a notorious case, with the last hour a painstaking, powerful procession to the gas chamber. Approx 120 minutes.
3:20, 7:25

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“One of the great anti-capital punishment movies, Wise paces the film so that the last half-hour,
taking us into the gas chamber, is incredibly powerful. Hayward gives an unforgettable performance.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“There is no attempt to gloss the character of Barbara Graham,
only an effort to understand it through some fine irony and pathos. Hayward brings off this complex characterization.”
– Variety

“A good example of Wise’s gritty realism and liberal vantage point.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum

"Hayward plays it superbly, under the consistently sharp direction of Robert Wise, who has shown here a stunning mastery of the staccato realistic style.
From a loose and wise-cracking B-girl she moves on to levels of cold disdain and then plunges down to depths of terror and bleak surrender as she reaches the end.”
– The New York Times

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MAY 16 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ

(1979, Don Siegel) Condemned to the Rock, Clint Eastwood shrugs off strip searches, shower brawls and racial tensions to find a special new use for snotty warden Patrick McGoohan’s nail clipper. Based on the only successful escape attempt from Alcatraz — well, bodies were never found — and arguably the darkest and quietest film ever from a major studio, let alone with an action superstar as the lead. Color; Approx 112 minutes.
1:30, 5:10, 8:50

“Remarkably austere and efficient... Siegel seems to have been inspired by Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped.”
- Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer

“Recommended! The testosterone count is off the charts.”
– Time Out New York

“It’s closer to Bresson than to the Hollywood prison escape movie. An austere depiction of the tedious routines of prison life, and of the courage and strength of spirit needed in coping with unpleasant warders, tough fellow-inmates, and a life sentence.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“The strongest film from the late period of Siegel’s career.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Could be more profitably studied in film courses than all the works of Bergman and Fellini combined.”
– The New York Times

RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11

(1954, Don Siegel) Attica precursor, as ringleader Neville Brand (offscreen, the fourth most-decorated soldier of WWII) plays the media while trying to keep the lid on a prison hostage takeover. Shot in 16 days at Folsom Prison, with actual cons as extras. Approx 80 minutes.
3:35, 7:15

“One of the all-time classic prison movies.”
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer

“Neo-realism run amok, a terrific B-movie! There were no stars, although as the psychopathic convict leader, Neville Brand surely deserved to become one.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“A classic of the genre, almost documentary in approach,
and boiling up an explosive violence kept under perfect control.”
– Time Out (London)

“One of the best of all prison pictures…
as authentic and as commercially uncompromised as possible.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

“Balances social commentary with gut-punching action… the first Siegel film to take bureaucratic authority to task and display his disdain for authority.”
– David Fear, Time Out New York

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MAY 17/18 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

“A stroke of genius double feature!” – V.A. Musetto, New York Post

SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS

(1942, Preston Sturges) Idealistic movie director Sullivan (Joel McCrea) wants to make O Brother, Where Art Thou?, while studio bosses hold out for another Ants in Your Pants of 1939. So he sets out to explore Human Misery for himself — and finds it big time when he winds up on a Southern chain gang. Approx 90 minutes.
Sun 1:30, 5:20, 9:10
Mon 1:00, 4:50

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“A brilliant fantasy in two keys - slapstick farce and the tragedy of human misery.”
– James Agee

“A one-of-a-kind brew of grim drama, smart comedy, and flat-out slapstick. By turn droll and devastating, it's brightened by sharp performances from Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

"The most witty and knowing spoof of Hollywood movie-making of all time."
– Film Society Review

“Still as brilliant and funny today as it was back in the early '40s…
Comedy doesn't come much more classic. If you haven't seen it, it's about time you did.”
– EMPIRE Magazine

“Irresistible! A gem, an almost serious comedy not taken entirely seriously, with wonderful dialogue,
eccentric characterizations, and superlative performances throughout.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“Sturges’ great Hollywood satire. Among the best scenes Sturges ever did, with a level of wit that is close to Oscar Wilde.”
– David Thomson

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

(2000, Joel Coen) Escaped from a Depression era Mississippi chain gang, George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro head off to dig up buried bank loot, running into Michael Badalucco’s nickname-hating “Babyface” Nelson, John Goodman’s one-eyed Bible salesman, and Clooney’s estranged wife Holly Hunter, crashing a KKK rally along the way. Based on Homer’s Odyssey! Color; Approx 107 minutes.
Sun 3:15, 7:05
Mon 2:45

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“A monkeyshines ramble through the iconography of the Depression South. It invokes the images familiar from the photographs of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange as well as The Grapes of Wrath, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, and the musicals of Busby Berkeley. A cockeyed –in more ways than one—road movie. It's a little like listening to a reminiscence from an old, addled relative who, over the years, has taken a shine to telling tall tales.”
- Charles Taylor, Salon.com

“Less a retelling of the founding epic of Western civilization than a portable anthology of Americana, a tinker's van festooned with scraps of Moby Dick, The Wizard of Oz and Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels. [Here] the Coens’ voracious fascination with the arcana of American popular culture and their whiz-kid inventiveness reach new heights of whimsy. Rather than wallow in nostalgia for the past, they dare to reinvent it, to make it something strange, beautiful and new. A tribute to, and example of, the persistent vitality of the American imagination. It's bona fide.”
- Dana Stevens, The New York Times

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MAY 19 TUE

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ

(1962, John Frankenheimer) Two-time killer Burt Lancaster (Best Actor, Venice; Oscar Nomination) gets the word from warden Karl Malden — solitary for life — but then he finds an injured bird in the yard. True story of lifer Robert Stroud, who became a world expert on ornithology from the confines of his cell, with Frankenheimer wringing every variation on shots through bars and cages. With an Oscar-nominated Telly Savalas as a fellow con and brutish Neville Brand as his guard. Approx 148 minutes.
1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9:15

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“The theme of a lone male up against ‘the system’ recurs in Frankenheimer's best work.
It's at the heart of Birdman. Lancaster gives a superbly natural, poignant performance.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“Interesting and compelling, [even] despite the stasis of the subject.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

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MAY 20 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE DEFIANT ONES

(1958, Stanley Kramer) Bigoted Tony Curtis and reverse-discriminating Sidney Poitier escape together from an overturned prison van — only trouble is, they’re still chained together. And sheriff Theodore Bikel is having his own problems reining in gung-ho volunteers and baying hounds in a chase through the swamps. Co-written by blacklist victims, briefly glimpsed under their own credits. Approx 97 minutes.
1:00, 5:15, 9:30

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“Recommended! Still packs a wallop, with tough, memorable performances by Poitier and Curtis.”
– Time Out New York

“Kramer’s best picture. Powerful and exciting.”
– Pauline Kael

“GROUNDBREAKING…
Nearly a decade before the supper-table racial detente of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.”
– The Austin Chronicle

COOL HAND LUKE

(1967, Stuart Rosenberg) “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” On the chain gang for decapitating parking meters, Paul Newman takes on Top Con George Kennedy (Best Supporting Oscar), enjoys the view as a voluptuous blonde washes her car in full view of the entire gang, bets he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs, and keeps trying to escape, prompting Captain Strother Martin’s legendary comment, until... Color; Approx 126 minutes.
2:55, 7:10

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“Paul Newman is in great form in Rosenberg's stylish and powerful film. Master cinematographer Conrad Hall's glittering camerawork is superb.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“Recommended! You say you have something better to do than see one of Paul Newman's finest performances?
[Sigh]. What we have here is a failure to communicate...”
– Time Out New York

“Reconstituting the solitary antihero of the chain-gang picture for the late '60s, Cool Hand Luke gave Paul Newman his third iconic role of the decade…
Newman's beauty and post-Method charisma is in the service of a tailor-made scenario. Director Stuart Rosenberg made his shrewdest gambit in surrounding
his lead with a cacophonous, widescreen-stuffing gang of character actors who, inhabiting every type from compulsive bettor to bloodhound wrangler,
crowd into the frame with gusto to form a Hawksian community.”
– SLANT Magazine

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MAY 21 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE

(1937, Fritz Lang) Ex-con Henry Fonda vows to go straight for wife Sylvia Sydney — but who’s going to believe it if he does? And after a bum rap, the only way out seems to be a prison break. Highlighted by two intense and passionate performances and Lang’s Expressionistic direction (“this fight against destiny, against fate” – Lang). Approx 86 minutes.
3:00, 6:10, 9:20

“One of the most beautiful movies ever made. Lang’s most magnificent account
of malign destiny snuffing out true love and a man’s chance.”
– David Thomson

“The finest of Lang’s American movies, and one of the finest American melodramas of the 30s.”
– Pauline Kael

“Looking back to the boldly-stated fatalism of his German films, and - in the on-the-run figures of Sidney and Fonda - forward to the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Pierrot le Fou, Lang's superb film noir constantly breaks the boundaries of the 'social consciousness' movie category. Lang constantly queries the narrative thrust with visuals that pose their own ambiguous riddles.”
–Time Out (London)

“Sometimes cited as one of the prototypes of Bonnie and Clyde, but seems more genuinely timely. Lang directs in a stripped-down expressionist style that had
a tremendous influence on the postwar film noir: it's always night, usually raining, and the camera hovers over the characters like the heavy hand of fate.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

PICK-UP

(1933, Marion Gering) Fresh out of the pen with no place to go, Sylvia Sidney moves in with taxi driver George Raft, but than predatory socialite Lillian Bond puts the moves on Raft — and Sidney’s gangster husband comes gunning for him. Approx 76 minutes.
1:30, 4:40, 7:50

“Powerful and low-key… with an astonishing affinity with Fritz Lang’s later work.
Very much a Pre-Code film: sentiment with guts.”
– William K. Everson

“You can keep your Jean Harlows and Greta Garbos: our choice for sexiest '30s starlet
goes to Sylvia Sidney, who is fresh out of the slammer in this melodrama.”
– David Fear, Time Out New York

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Special thanks to Jared Sapolin, Grover Crisp, Helena Brissenden
(Sony Pictures); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.); Ross Klein (MGM); Todd Wiener, Steven Hill
(UCLA Film & Television Archive); Mary Tallungan, Scott Kelly (The Walt Disney Company);
Schawn Belston, Caitlin Robertson (Twentieth Century Fox); Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (Universal);
Peter Langs (IPMA); Liana Moss; Mike Mashon, Rob Stone (Library of Congress).

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