A 1955 docudrama of a kidnapping gone wrong & the man who tried to make it happen. When an asthmatic kid goes missing in a national park, a crooked opportunist hears of this & tries to milk the situation by collecting ransom from his distraught father. Little does all concerned know that the poor boy would fall to his death from an elevated cabin which he escaped from, only for the kidnapper, played by Ralph Meeker, to toss his body into a forest canyon below. The FBI is called in & they capture Meeker sending him to jail w/o getting the particulars of the crime (Meeker is dubbed the Iceman for his reticence in not divulging any information). Once in stir, he meets up w/a group of convicts (Charles Bronson, Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney, Jr. & William Talman make up some of this unit) looking to break out of prison w/the remaining ransom money (which Meeker stashed) used as a boon to keep himself alive during the escape which goes off w/o a hitch w/some of the team being killed along the way until the law finally catches up w/them back at the park. A great first half of the film gets lost in the second (almost feeling like two separate narratives which don't congeal in this 90 minutes affair!) w/a lot of the story beats sped along just to reach the end credits but I'd still recommend it for the terse first 45 minutes as the kidnapping & aftermath is thrilling & heartbreaking. Also starring Felicia Farr (she was married to Jack Lemmon) as one of Meeker's helpers, Stafford Repp (Chief O'Hara from TV's Batman) as the prison warden & William Boyett (from Adam 12) as a park ranger.
Review of Big House, U.S.A.
