I never knew you were young Hume Cronyn.
I gotta say, I hated your character. I wanted to stone him.
The first time I'd ever seen Hume Cronyn on screen was "Cocoon" in 1985. He was a 74 year old man by that time and I was a mere babe. I remember him again in "*batteries not included" (1987), and as far as I knew he'd just began acting.
It turns out, naturally, that Hume had been acting for decades. In "Brute Force" he plays a tyrannical prison guard at Westgate Penitentiary named Captain Munsey. He was the right hand man to Warden A. J. Barnes (Roman Bohnen) who had a totally different approach to running a prison. The warden believed in rehabilitation while Munsey believed in debilitation.
One well respected con was fed up with prison life and the daily abuses, and had plans to break out. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) had a sick girlfriend on the outside and he would do whatever it took to see her. The only problem was that Munsey had informants everywhere. Joe couldn't sneeze without an informant reporting back to Munsey.
Joe was one of six occupants of cell R17. That alone was reason enough to want to escape. How can you possibly share one cell with five other guys?! Even if you liked each other it would still be hell.
Like "Shawshank Redemption," "Stir Crazy," or "Escape Plan," you want to see the guys break out. "Brute Force" brings a human element to the prisoners while showing just how demonic the guards can be. Joe had an ardent desire to escape, but he couldn't do it alone. It would be all about how many he could get to join him and who.
I gotta say, I hated your character. I wanted to stone him.
The first time I'd ever seen Hume Cronyn on screen was "Cocoon" in 1985. He was a 74 year old man by that time and I was a mere babe. I remember him again in "*batteries not included" (1987), and as far as I knew he'd just began acting.
It turns out, naturally, that Hume had been acting for decades. In "Brute Force" he plays a tyrannical prison guard at Westgate Penitentiary named Captain Munsey. He was the right hand man to Warden A. J. Barnes (Roman Bohnen) who had a totally different approach to running a prison. The warden believed in rehabilitation while Munsey believed in debilitation.
One well respected con was fed up with prison life and the daily abuses, and had plans to break out. Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) had a sick girlfriend on the outside and he would do whatever it took to see her. The only problem was that Munsey had informants everywhere. Joe couldn't sneeze without an informant reporting back to Munsey.
Joe was one of six occupants of cell R17. That alone was reason enough to want to escape. How can you possibly share one cell with five other guys?! Even if you liked each other it would still be hell.
Like "Shawshank Redemption," "Stir Crazy," or "Escape Plan," you want to see the guys break out. "Brute Force" brings a human element to the prisoners while showing just how demonic the guards can be. Joe had an ardent desire to escape, but he couldn't do it alone. It would be all about how many he could get to join him and who.