Legendary noir cinematographer John Alton (Raw Deal, T-Men, The Big Combo and the still-in-print textbook "Painting with Light") shot this fairly routine semi-documentary prison-break film based on a real incident in Canon (pronounced "canyon") City, Colorado. We even get to meet the warden and some of the inmates (one of whom had been in stir since 1897!). Happily, actors arrive to recreate the break, which occurs similtaneously with a Rocky Mountain blizzard. Alton's snow is so Christmassy and photogenic it distances us from the grim business afoot, which has prisoners posing as guards who invade various local homesteads; they hadn't reckoned on one tough old hammer-wielding grandmaw. This is a minor but watchable period piece, once you get over the patriarchal voice-over, so full of moral certitude you could retch. But then that was SOP in midcentury.
Review of Canon City
