The Last Mile (1959) User Reviews

A Hail Of Bullets

[telegonus · 8/10 · 12 November 2010]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Mickey Rooney's the whole show in this movie but that wouldn't be far from the mark. This extremely violent 1959 remake of a 1932 film based on a Broadway play by John Wexley is directed in slam-bang style by Howard Koch, who does such a fine job it could just as easily be Don Siegel or Phil Karlson behind the camera. For fans of the prison genre this is a must see. It has it all.

The plot is basic stuff about doomed men in the big house, how they're treated by the guards, what motivates them, how the prison system works, as Hollywood sees it anyway. In style the film's similar to many period gangster films of its time. Rooney had already played Baby Face Nelson a couple of years earlier. He's in fine form here as a desperate inmate determined to break free. And he takes a lot of people with him in the stunning last half-hour of the film, in which the bullets are flying left and right.

Rooney's performance was so persuasive, he seemed so in tune with his character's mood swings (I don't know how else to put it) that I was practically rooting for him to make it in the end. The supporting cast is filled with some fine actors, ranging from veterans Frank Conroy and Leon Janney, up and comer Michael Constantine, the always distinguished Frank Overton, plus ex-cowboy star Donald "Red" Barry. The Last Miles must have seemed somewhat retro in its day,--prison pictures weren't common around the time it was made-and it plays well now, is curiously viscerally satisfying, and a good example of Hollywood trying to recapture some of the glory of Depression era films, and doing a damn good job of it, too.

Wow

[JohnSeal · 8/10 · 20 January 2011]

This one came right out of left field. I tuned in because I like Mickey Rooney and crime pictures in equal measure, but ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for. The Last Mile is one of the bleakest American films I've ever seen, a no holds barred depiction of life (so to speak) on Death Row. The tone is decidedly European; if Ingmar Bergman had ever made a prison flick, this would have been it. This is all the more surprising considering Howard Koch served as director and future Amicus honchos Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg produced! The cast is uniformly excellent, with especial kudos to Rooney as Killer Mears, Ford Rainey as Red Kirby (whose 30 day stay comes into play during the film's second act), and Leon Janney as sadistic prison guard Callahan (a role I can also imagine James Craig essaying with equal relish). Van Alexander contributes a fantastic, jazz-inflected score, Joseph Brun's black and white cinematography is frequently stunning, and the whole thing reminded me of Jacques Becker's Le Trou, which in my opinion is very high praise indeed!

Fraternity among the Condemned

[jromanbaker · 8/10 · 2 April 2023]

To begin with Mickey Rooney is incredible as a man whose mind is at the end of its tether. Condemned to the electric chair he waits on death row with several others. He watches along as two of the condemned are prepared for execution, and although the film does not exploitatively show the first execution the moments of death are shown by the dimming of the electric lights, twice. The second preparing of a terrified young man does not lead to execution but the terror of dying is vividly shown, and in my opinion this film is equal to the three other films I have seen on Capital Punishment; ' I Want to Live, ' ' We are all Murderers ' and ' Yield to the Night, ' and the acting all round is superb. Set almost entirely on death row it shows also the fraternity between the men who are about to die, and there is tenderness too in a mercy killing of one terrified young man. Appalling to watch it is essential viewing and there is very little sadism in the film, and when it does come it comes from the cruelty of the guards. The last part of the film is horrific, and I would give it a ten except that it does almost veer towards too much cruelty and exploitation. It can be seen in a good copy on YouTube, but strictly adult viewing.

Spare and Brutal

[dougdoepke · 12 January 2011]

The movie may be a cheap-jack production, but it also has a number of graphic touches including Rooney's absolutely riveting performance. With its single set, ugly b&w photography, and no-name cast (except for Rooney), I can't imagine the film played more than a few remote drive-in's farthest from town. Nonetheless, the 80-minutes pushes the bounds of 50's movie-making in several notable ways.

For example, catch how much emotional fear the doomed men—whether guards or cons— show when facing death. It's really unusual for that period to risk agitating audiences with realistic fears of death. But this one does. Also, the ricocheting bullets had me ducking under my chair— a really well done special effect. Actually, this cheapo comes closer to Sam Peckinpah's raw depiction of violence than about any film I've seen from that time—bullets actually raise blood, and despite their pleading people do get shot point blank. I'm guessing the producers got away with this because Hollywood didn't much care what a few necking teenagers might use for background.

It's an ugly movie in more ways than one—not a single woman in sight!-- just a bunch of ugly guys. At the same time, the first half too often drags before picking up with the slam-bang second half. Then too, have you ever seen a more barren or squeakier clean cell block, likely a reflection of the story's stage origins. Anyway, it's Rooney at his most intense. And despite the movie's really brutal nature, there are more moments of genuine honesty than in most A-productions of the period. But it's not one you want to see if you're feeling down.

Indifferent- Are we supposed to see these prisoners as heroes?

[Sleeper-Cell · 6/10 · 25 August 2017]

I watched this film last night and although interesting in some respects it was also hard to get my head around.

We watch men on death row talk about their stories and how they are scared about going to the electric chair. I guess if they hadn't killed anyone in the first place they wouldn't be there.

Perhaps watching this in 2017 where we have very lax sentencing against violent criminals and victims are ignored, made it feel different to how it might have been to watching it when the film was made.

The performances are good but a little over wrought, Mickey Rooney makes a good tough guy. By the end of the film you can see why these men, especially Rooney are where they are and their final bid for freedom is just pointless.

I didn't have any sympathy for the prisoners at all and was on the side of the wardens the whole way through. An interesting film which can be viewed in a number of ways. If made today the moralizing might be a lot more heavy handed. One of the good things about this film is it doesn't push any agenda's. It leaves it open to interpretation.

Very stagey, but decent prison flick

[rdoyle29 · 7/10 · 18 February 2023]

Clifford Davis is the newest inmate on death row. We get a picture of life on death row, focusing mostly on the terrible waiting, until the systematic abuse by guard "Red" Barry leads to tough-guy inmate Mickey Rooney cracking an instigating a jail break. The last act is an increasingly violent stand-off.

The film is an adaptation of a 1930's play by future blacklisted screenwriter John Wexley. You can see how this could have been intended at one point as an expose (it was adapted as an earlier film in 1932), but this film starts with a title card assuring you that everything you see has already been fixed. What you get here is a very theatrical, violent crime drama. It's not bad, but it's certainly not great either.

It might seem like casting Rooney as a tough guy is far against type, but he played a string of these kinds of roles in the 1950's and early 1960's. He's pretty convincing and really only far exceeds the top in the last few minutes.

I've got two lousy weeks left, and you're asking me to have faith?

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 27 March 2014]

The Last Mile is directed by Howard W. Koch and adapted to screenplay by Milton Subotsky and Seton I. Miller from the play of the same name by John Wexley. It stars Mickey Rooney, Frank Overton, Michael Constantine and John Vari. Music is by Van Alexander and cinematography by Joseph Brun.

The Death House is the cell block where nine inmates await their dates with the electric chair. Some of the guards delight in tormenting the condemned men, one of whom is Killer John Mears (Rooney), and he's had enough...

Already made in 1932 with Preston Foster in the starring role, Howard Koch's 59 version of The Last Mile taps into the film noir zeitgeist of the time and unleashes a film of great power.

Essentially played out on one set, there was a danger that this could have been too stage bound as a production, but not a bit of it, the tight confines of the shoot are just perfect for the thematics of the story. Pic begins with imposing title credits, an animated drawing of "Old Sparky" accompanied by shards of Van Alexander's Jazz "N" Blues musical score. We are then locked up with the convicts of "The Death House", sharing their fears, their anger and their regrets, the constant glances towards "The Door" at the end of the block akin to catching a glimpse of "The Grim Reaper" spying on you.

For the first two thirds of the piece the makers ask for our patience as they build characters and atmosphere, gently ratcheting up the tension with every claustrophobic frame. Prison stories were ready made for film noir purveyors, offering great opportunities for the cinematographers to utilise the steel bars for psychologically shadowed impact, and Joseph Brun does that excellently here, even managing to extend the cell shadows over the smug guards, the inference is that they too are locked up in this place of abject misery.

The air of fatalism mixes with the sweat of the men and drips down the cell walls, we are left in no doubt that this powder keg is about to be ignited, and when it comes it comes with the thunder, producing a last third of kinetic cinema of throat grabbing proportions. To which Koch and his team deliver a film noir coup de grace. Rooney leads the way with his performance of a seething John Mears, it's not over acting as some critics of the time suggested, it's a full on commitment to the portrayal of the incarcerated male who literally has nothing to lose and has had enough of being taunted. The other actors around him inevitably pale into his shadow, but they also put much emotion into their respective roles, very much so.

An under seen and under valued prison noir, The Last Mile should be sought out by anyone with a bent for such films. 8.5/10

Low budget and it shows

[HotToastyRag · 2/10 · 31 March 2021]

The Last Mile was filmed during the interim of Mickey Rooney's career when he was no longer a popular teen and hadn't had his comeback yet as an older man. In other words, if you really like him, you don't need to be one of a hundred people who have seen this movie.

Mickey is on death row, alongside a bunch of actors you probably won't recognize but might seem vaguely familiar. The entire movie takes place on one night, in one set. When one of the men has his execution scheduled for that night, the prisoners lose it and plan on an escape. It's predictable, the lousy script isn't very well acted, and the budget was obviously low. Mickey Rooney has made so many other good movies, so pick another one this evening.

Bleak but Powerful Prison Movie

[grubstaker58 · 10/10 · 2 June 2006]

Having not seen this film in about 20 years I am still impressed with it 's hard -hitting impact and stellar acting. Of course, one Mr. Mickey Rooney is indeed, INCREDIBLE in his role as the ring-leading "Killer".(In reference to another review here-none other than Orson Welles evoked Mickey Rooney's name as the greatest movie actor,also.) I also recall the jazzy-brassy score and the bare black and white photography. I love the Mick's last line before he goes out for his dose of lead poisoning.(I think the Stranglers lifted it for a line in one of their songs-Get a Grip on Yourself.)This is a great film and unjustly buried film. Let's get it out ! Side note-a recent Film Review magazine gave a big write up on Don Segal's "Babyface Nelson" ,made a couple years before "Last Mile" and also starring Mickey Rooney. Another rave of the Mick's intense and sympathetic performance.Perhaps it's the start of a groundswell of a appreciation for some truly superior cinematic performances.

Positive

[Spence-28 · 10/10 · 8 April 2000]

This is a very grim, hard hitting, even brutal film about a death row break that goes awry. It's black and white photography keeps it from being dated. Mickey Rooney is excellent as the twisted, yet strangely sympathetic lead. One of the first movies to portray the psychological desolation of death row. It is also quite poignant.

the ultimate prison noir

[RoughneckPaycheck · 9/10 · 22 February 2011]

Man I didn't know what I was in for when I sat down to watch this brutal little gem. This portrait of a doomed attempted prison break from a death row cell block hits very hard, and it left me shaking my head in stunned silence.

I'm not surprised to learn from other reviews here that this story began its life as a stage play; most of the action takes place on one set, it features an ensemble cast with multiple meaty roles, and the first half of the film works at a deliberate pace with longer takes and scenes than are conventionally cinematic. It walks a thin line, how to get across the agonizing boredom of being in such a lockup, without becoming boring itself? The answer is to spread dialog around, and to give a lot of weight to mundane events, magnifying tensions and emotions. It gives the excellent cast a lot of room to create, if not exactly sympathy, at least an understanding of where the characters are coming from.

The second half (or maybe final third) of the movie is an altogether different animal, as the ticking timebomb of Mickey Rooney's John Mears explodes into violent retribution. Mears is a complicated character, an atheist and maybe a nihilist, but he cares deeply about his fellow death row inmates. Rooney's performance is AMAZING and dominates this section of the film. Also excellent are Clifford David as the youngest man on the row, next scheduled to be executed, and Frank Overton as Father O'Connors, the priest who gives the condemned men their last rites. His character shows tremendous courage as events spiral into bloodshed; he has a lot more backbone than the guards, who for the most part are sniveling, cowardly, sadistic creeps.

And as others have noted, the jazz score is outstanding, dynamic, punchy, and powerful. It maybe calls attention to itself a little too much, but it's wildly effective in underlining and slapping exclamation points on events throughout the film.

In short, terrific.

One of the First and Best Death row Movies.

[oxymoron-3 · 10/10 · 22 March 2000]

I have seen this movie many times. At least a Dozen. But unfortunatly not recently. However, Etched in my memory never to leave me is a scene in which Mickey Rooney, -"Killer Mears" knows that he is to be executed and it's getting close to the moment of truth, He dances, and cries, and laughs, he vacillates from hesteria to euphoria and runs the gambit of ever emotion. Never have I seen such a brilliant performance by any actor living or dead, past or present. It was then I know for sure that Mickey Rooney, yes, "Andy Hardy" was and is a actor of great genius. However I kept it, my opinion to myself for years thinking, surely I must be alone in this viewpoint. About 15 years or so after I saw this film for the last time on television, I chanced to read the old Q & A section of the Los Angeles Times. The question was posed to Lawrence Olivier, and the question was: "Mr. Olivier You are considered one of the greatest actors of all time, whom then do YOU consider to be among the greatest actors?" His answer was, "Peter Finch and Mickey Rooney" I was stunned, but not surprised. I immediatly flashed back to his "Killer Mears" And I felt very good for having seen this great ability in him, and now having my view supported by another whos work I admired.. Later of course there was "Bill" and many other great moments with Mikey Rooney. This film, "The Last Mile" should be seen by all acting students. I Frankly cannot remember a great deal about the film after all these years but Mr. Rooney in it, will never leave me. If anyone out there remembers this film the same as I do? I would be interested in hearing from you. For this picture etched in my heart alone I gave it a 10 just on the face of his performance.

Death Row Uprising

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 30 December 2010]

This remake of The Last Mile has been updated nicely with a nice jazz score and the inmates and prison officials definitely fit the Fifties as opposed to the Twenties when it first appeared on Broadway. But the impact of this searing prison drama hasn't changed and Mickey Rooney stretches his considerable talent to the limit playing the lead of Killer Mears who leads the uprising of the death row inmates.

Mickey has some fast company among the people who've done this part. Spencer Tracy did it on Broadway and his performance there led to his original film contract with Fox. Clark Gable after doing some bit parts and extra work in silent films was spotted doing this in a touring company in Los Angeles which led to his MGM contract. And Preston Foster did it in the original screen version. Rooney's performance stands up to any of their's.

It's a simple plot, but the characters run deep. Before the big attempted breakout we get a character study of each of the inmates on Death Row. It takes a good actor to get himself noticed here though because the character of Killer Mears so dominates the film and the other inmates. These are men with nothing at all to lose, a lot like the inmates shown in The Green Mile. But of course they don't have a character like Mears to whip them in a frenzy when a guard slips and Mears gets the upper hand.

Being that the film is only on one set for 95% of the time, it's a small budget affair, hardly like Ben-Hur which came out the same year. Still Rooney's incredible performance should have merited Oscar consideration. He was nominated for films and performances not half as good as this.

Try to see both the Preston Foster and Mickey Rooney versions together. Too bad we can't see Spencer Tracy or Clark Gable in how they did the role. The Last Mile is timeless as long as we have capital punishment. I can see Russell Crowe doing Killer Mears easily in a 21st Century version.

Absolutely outstanding performance by Mickey Rooney

[adhoc2004 · 10/10 · 5 July 2002]

Saw this movie when it came out in 1959, left a lasting impression. Great group of actors. A little short timewise but a great movie all the same. Have only seen once since then and that was some time ago. Hopefully they'll put it out on DVD if they haven't already.

exceeds all expectations

[RanchoTuVu · 10/10 · 6 January 2011]

Condemned men await their execution in this death row prison drama which, through the script, acting, music, setting, and overall ambiance brings home the anguish of their ordeal better than anyone's wildest expectations. Mickey Rooney seems born to play this part, and this film will make one want to find the nearly impossible to find Big Operator in order to see how this actor could so totally inhabit the part of a tough and ruthless criminal. Of course we remember his earlier days which amazes us as to how he could so brilliantly portray the character he does in this film. However this is more than merely Mickey Rooney. When the bullets start whizzing all over the cell block, you pretty much have to take your hat off to the director for making such a tough as nails film.

One of the most powerful prison film ever made.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10/10 · 7 March 2022]

And also one of the best Mickey Rooney's performances, with of course Don Siegel's BABY FACE NELSON, where Rooney also plays a gangster. Both films are rough, tough, gritty but outstanding, far better than for instance DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD, another crime flick but smoother than this one. This is fast paced, brutal, exciting, where the audience is glued to the seat and clichés totally avoided. I think that Don Siegel could have made this film, at least involved in the writing or production. Preston Foster was also vrery good in the 1932 version, but this remake is not a lesser stuff, far from that. Rooney is miles away from what he usually did, even THE BOLD AND THE BRAVE, though another awesome performance fo him.

Enjoyable just to watch Mickey Rooney!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 22 January 2014]

"The Last Mile" is a heck of a good prison movie. Although there are a LOT of really good prison film, I'd rank this up among the best due to a script that never gives way to sentimentality as well as a wonderful performance by Mickey Rooney in the lead.

The film is set on Death Row in a prison. While quite a few other films have been set in such a location, the film's prologue claims it's based on a real story. Whether or not that's true, I have no idea. Regardless, much of the film is spent just passing time....waiting until each guy's number is up and they are sent to be executed. At times, it's interesting to watch the guards, as a couple of them are not much better than the inmates. But the most interesting, clearly, is 'Killer' Mears. Unlike others who sweat out their time and worry about death, he's a cool and nasty piece of work. You see just how awful and determined he is when he is able to overcome one of the guards and he leads a prison revolt. However, this is not just a run of the mill attempt to break out. This group has nothing to lose and Mears is more than willing to kill all their captives without hesitation. This grittiness makes the film and those who see Rooney as just a child star are unaware that he could really act--and here he is amazingly good. Overall, this is a wonderfully realistic film--one that never gives way to sentiment and which ends on a gritty note instead of a happily ever after contrived ending.

Currently, you can see this film streaming from Netflix. Despite appearing like a low-budget and forgettable 50s film, it's anything but.

Mickey Rooney Gave a Superlatively Masterful Performance!

[bayhorse · 10/10 · 24 December 2006]

While the original 1932 version, with Preston Foster, was good, there's no remake more worthy than this 1959 one, or more impossible to find anywhere, just as I strongly suspect Mickey Rooney to have had something to do with that. Never could a mere performance have ever been so masterfully brilliant, or a script more thought-provoking, as well as an improvement upon the original. Many years after the last of my several viewings of this film, in 1970, I read an article in which Mickey Rooney was recounting a visit he'd made to death row, and which had apparently very drastically eliminated whatever sense of personal identification he'd felt with people in similar circumstances. The article was about as short as the main character here, and didn't cover much, other than the extent to which his extreme disillusionment with the quality of the inmates themselves had been emphasized, even in language I would not care to explicitly quote here. . . . . One of my main problems with capital punishment is that, of course, it is not evenly, impartially applied, just as many innocent people are far-too-carelessly, thus unnecessarily sent to meet this particular fate. Another problem I have with it is that it is not applied swiftly enough, or, for that matter, even publicly enough! The bible makes a special point, in such cases, about one of the more important purposes of such, as a deterrent, being ineffectually obscured, minus, not only a public viewing, but also the direct participation of all! As for those who claim to prove, statistically, that such is not an effective deterrent? In addition to having a problem about the reliability of their data, I have little if any objectively disprovable doubt many are behind bars now due to the extent that such a deterrent is lacking. However, I do have a problem about the fact that Robert Duvall, in The Apostle, had been punished at all, for his particular "crime," or that the only hope of leniency for one such as he would have to be based on a "temporary insanity" defense, as though that would serve as the only acceptable excuse in his kind of case. . . . In addition to various other questions concerning the motives of Mickey Rooney for that particular visit he'd recounted, and about the answers to which I can only try to speculate, I suspect the main one had been of a decidedly religious nature. I don't know exactly when he'd become the professing Christian he now makes it a special point, whenever possible, to emphasize that he is; but, as anybody should be well-aware, this particular category of people tends to be the most vehemently out for blood, when it comes to extracting an eye for an eye. However, I have no particular bone of contention concerning that, per se, just as there's no doubt, scripturally speaking, that not all, and perhaps not even most, shall be spared the same ultimate fate, at the hands of the Lord Himself, as a result of His sacrifice on the cross. However, there is a problem, for me, about the spirit or attitude with which most professing Christians emphasize their enthusiasm for capital punishment; for, contrary to the Lord Himself, who would love to see everybody saved (Ezekiel 18:32) (II Peter 3:9), they seem to go vindictively out of their way to find reasons to condemn! . . . What most people, on either side of this superlatively ever-burning issue, cannot appear to sufficiently appreciate, is that the Lord is as dynamically and elusively soft in nature as He is hard. The two sides of His nature appear to be so inherently incompatible as to render Him mentally deranged, at least by any strictly human reckoning. Yet, regardless of how harrowingly ungraspable this miraculously dynamic blending of the water and oil in His nature surely is, there can be no doubt that anything short of it, or anything fanatically and characteristically on either one side or the other of this equation, falls inadequately and unacceptably short of the entire judicial truth. Indeed, I've seen the most blood-curdling thirst for the same come out, self-contradictorily enough, on far-too-many occasions, whenever the categorically anti-death penalty advocates are confronted, even in the most rationally well-balanced ways, with the fact that, although the Lord died for everybody, not all are thereby going to be saved. After-all, in order to receive absolution, one must, to repeat the same term, reach out and receive it, that is, repent (Luke 13:3-5). Could anything make more sense? . . . But, then, what about the Lord's command to forgive, even in the case of one's enemies, of those who despise and persecute you without a just cause or provocation? One of the far-too-prevailing difficulties with this kind of sentimentality, as popularly misinterpreted, is the way it obscuringly over-simplifies the real meaning of forgiveness. The act of forgiveness does not, in itself, mean the same thing as unconditionally excusing the one being forgiven. When one takes a clearly sober, rationally well-balanced view here, from the perspective of God's own attitude, all it actually amounts to is a fervent wish that the one forgiven will ultimately succeed at finding his way, seeing the light, and being granted mercy. This attitude is, of course, the very opposite of, say, that of Jonah, who actually resented it when God told him that his preaching to the people of Nineveh would result in their repentance. Jonah didn't want them to repent, but vindictively desired that they be destroyed. How self-righteously, cold-bloodedly like unto most professing Christians he was, save that even his reasons were undoubtedly better than most! I envy Jonah almost as much as he would me! However, minus the repentance of the one being forgiven, any forgiveness he may receive from a genuine Christian is not going to do him any good. In such a case, the only one to benefit is the real Christian himself!

It's over twenty years since I saw this film but it has never left my memory. And to be honest I couldn't even remember the title until I checked it out again.

[michaelocion · 10/10 · 15 July 2015]

Although it's such a long time since I saw the film, I'm now planning to see it as soon as I can as it made such an impression on me, pretty much like that described in the review I've read on this site, which really confirmed my overall thoughts on the film and performance of Mickey Rooney in it. So now I can't wait to see it again, now that I have gotten the title again, and moreover by all accounts it really is as good as I first thought. That's why I have no trouble giving ten out of ten with my memories of it from years back, and in advance of my seeing it again as soon as I can. In addition to seeing the film again and finding out that it actually was as good as I had always considered it to be, I'll be happy to pass that good news on to others around in the course of discussions regarding good films and things to watch.

Grim, gripping story of a desperate prison break

[captainahab-64182 · 10/10 · 6 December 2023]

All the actors give good, strong performances, with Mickey Rooney as the leader of a doomed prison break attempt. All the actors are believable, with Alan Bunce as the Warden and Frank Overton as a priest especially fine.

, The ensemble cast is made up of lesser known actors, but that doesn't matter , as all involved do a fantastic job of bringing their various characters to life. The frightened new guy, the soft spoken Black prisoner, the sneering guard who watches over them,, Rooney as a ferocious convict capable of compassion for his cell mates, are all totally convincing.

This is a very intense movie that is not for the faint hearted. Well worth seeing if you get a chance.

The Mick's Movie

[PALADIN12640 · 10/10 · 31 July 2010]

Gritty, realistic movie of those on the wrong side of the bars and of life. A simply great movie that stays in my mind though I haven't seen it since I was a teenager (I'm 61 now).

Though, as I said, it is a great movie; it would simply be another unmemorable, tepid little jail-house potboiler if not for a towering performance by Mickey Rooney. No pun intended.

Every once in a while I check to see if it has come out on DVD. Not yet. Too bad. It would sell to those of my age group; which I guess explains why it is not out.

I used to work in the industry, as a "grip" back in the early 70's. The workers spoke very fondly (and in certain areas, with awe) of Mickey.

Dennis/Kim

Decent Prison Drama

[Michael_Elliott · 26 September 2012]

The Last Mile (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Prison drama takes place on the Death Row floor as one man (Clifford David) finally accepts the fact that he's going to die later that night. Before that can happen, the most violent man (Mickey Rooney) in the joint manages to break free and release the other inmates and soon they're holding hostages. THE LAST MILE isn't the greatest prison flick you're going to see but I think it has enough interesting moments to make it worth sitting through once. Low budget master Howard W. Koch does a pretty good job at bringing the material to life and you've got to give him even more credit because the actual material isn't all that good to begin with. Koch at least brings a nice atmosphere to the film and I was also impressed with the visual style that he brought it. This is especially noticeable during the sequence where the David character is confessing to a Priest (Frank Overton) and the use of shadows was very impressive. I also thought he managed to bring some good tension towards the end of the film but it's too bad the screenplay didn't give him more chances at this early on. Perhaps I've seen too many "cute" Mickey Rooney roles but I always have a hard time believing him in some of his more adult things. He's playing a mad dog killer here and while I thought he did a fine job in regards to the performance, I still can't see him as much of a threat. I thought Overton was also good in the role of the Priest but the rest of the cast were very hit and miss. The screenplay was clearly the weakest aspect of the film as we never really get to know any of the characters and we don't even get to know why they're on Death Row. I thought the film didn't know if it wasn't to be a straight crime flick or if it wanted to send some sort of political message about killing people. The film even tries to make us "like" these men but not for a second did I want to see any of them succeed.