''Big House, U.S.A.'' is a 1955 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

directed by

Howard W. Koch Howard Winchel Koch (April 11, 1916 – February 16, 2001) was an American producer and director of film and television. Life and career Koch was born in New York City, the son of Beatrice (Winchel) and William Jacob Koch. His family was Jewish. ...

and written by John C. Higgins. The film stars

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in ''All th ...

, Ralph Meeker,

Reed Hadley Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor. Early life Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one ...

, William Talman, Lon Chaney, Jr., and

Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, Western, and wa ...

. The film was released on March 3, 1955, by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

Plot

At a summer camp near a

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

national park, a young boy runs a short race against his fellow campers and collapses with a severe asthma attack. The boy is taken to the camp's infirmary where a nurse, Emily Evans, tries to help him with a drug given by injection. As she approaches him with a syringe in her hand, the boy who is terrified of needles, runs away into the woods, where after a while Jerry Barker finds him. Park ranger Erickson tries to calm wealthy Robertson Lambert, the missing boy's frantic father. Barker has demanded a $200,000 ransom for the boy's safe return and warned Lambert not to tell anyone or he will kill his son. Lambert agrees to pay the ransom. Barker goes to collect the money and leaves the boy behind. The boy tries to escape from the hiding place he is in and accidentally falls to his death. When Barker returns and sees the body he coldly throws the body over a cliff and buries most of the money. Caught by agent Madden of the FBI, Barker is convicted of extortion, but not murder because no body is found. He is sent to prison, where the warden hopes to intimidate Barker by throwing the child killer together with four of the most hardened convicts in stir, bank robber Rollo Lamar, smuggler Alamo Smith, and cold-blooded killers Mason and Kelly. Barker becomes known as the "ice man" because of his cold, icy persona in court when he was convicted. He also gains the prisoners' trust after discovering their escape plan and not informing. But when they take him along on the breakout, it is not out of friendship but because they're after the hidden ransom money. Madden is in hot pursuit. He has discovered that Emily, the nurse, had been in on Barker's scheme from the start. Back in the park, the fugitives turn on one another until only two are left. Mason is gunned down, and Lamar begs for his life. The money is recovered, Barker and Lamar go back to prison to face the gas chamber, and Emily is given a long sentence behind bars.

Cast

as Rollo Lamar * Ralph Meeker as Jerry Barker *

as Special FBI Agent James Madden * William Talman as William 'Machine Gun' Mason * Lon Chaney, Jr. as Alamo Smith *

as Benny Kelly *

Felicia Farr Felicia Farr (born Olive Dines; October 4, 1932) is a American former actress and model Early years Farr was born in Westchester County, New York. She attended Erasmus Hall High School and studied sociology at Penn State. Career Farr be ...

as Emily Euridice Evans *

Roy Roberts Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen. Life and career Born in Tampa ...

as Chief Ranger Will Erickson *

Willis Bouchey Willis Ben Bouchey (May 24, 1907 – September 27, 1977) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 150 films and television shows. He was born in Vernon, Michigan, but raised by his mother and stepfather in Washington state. ...

as Robertson Lambert *Peter J. Votrian as Danny Lambert * Robert Bray as Ranger McCormick

References

External links

* 1955 films Film noir 1955 crime films American black-and-white films American crime films American prison films Films directed by Howard W. Koch Films set in Colorado Films scored by Paul Dunlap United Artists films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{1950s-crime-film-stub