Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

XhcnoirX Several of the toughest inmates in a Colorado state penitentiary near Canon City (pronounced 'Canyon City') are planning a getaway. They include Jeff Corey and Whit Bissell, both serving time in solitary. One of the inmates tries to get Scott Brady to join them, but he refuses. However, after hearing he won't be up for parole for another 10 years, he gives in. The group of 12 men manage to escape, and end up in a snowstorm. They split up and take several families hostage in search of guns, food and cars, while the authorities try to capture them.Apparently based on an actual prison break that happened a year earlier from that same prison, the movie even includes the actual warden as himself! Starting off with the authoritarian voice-over of Reed Hadley, the voice-over then becomes the (unseen) interviewer of the warden, which was weird to say the least. The first 20 minutes or so of the movie also includes several interviews with actual inmates, as well as actual prison life footage. Quite interesting, esp a long-time inmate (50 years!) who said he didn't want to be released anymore, as he had nothing outside to live for.Once the movie really starts, it moves at a rapid pace. Breaking out of prison seemed pretty easy tho, which makes you wonder why the warden looked so smug in the intro?! In any case, as the split up groups of escapees invade several homes, the movie becomes quite suspenseful. The tensest scenes are those where Corey ('Follow Me Quietly') is inside the home of an elderly couple, and the wife, Mabel Paige, tries to knock him down using a hammer. Brady ('He Walked By Night') in his first big role, is depicted as a stand-up guy who made a mistake once. He prevents a fellow inmate from raping a teenage girl, and later on allows a family to take their son to hospital for an appendix surgery. It's a bit too good to be true but I didn't mind it too much. Even the moralizing end of the movie isn't too overdone.The movie was directed by Crane Wilbur, who directed/wrote a couple of prison movies around this time including 'Outside The Wall'. He does pretty well here, aided by a lot of location shooting in and around the prison. The cinematography by noir legend John Alton is decent and occasionally even inspired, but this is far from his best work. There are way better prison noirs out there, and this one's just noir-ish really, but it's entertaining and the intro offers a bit of a glimpse into 40s prison life. 6/10

evanston_dad "Canon City" (spelled c-a-n-o-n but pronounced as "canyon") is an example of a type of film prominent in the late 1940s: the docudrama. Usually these films had a noirish sensibility and were almost always about gritty subject matter. They were part documentary and part fiction -- filmed on location in actual locales with objective third-party narration, stripped-down production values and a journalistic focus on presenting events matter-of-factly and without superfluous emotion."Canon City" tells the story of a famous prison break from a Colorado penitentiary. The first part of the film gives us a tour of the prison and introduces us to men who were the actual inmates at the time the movie was filmed; the chief warden of the prison likewise plays the warden in the movie. After this extended prologue, actors take over to portray the actual escape and the subsequent manhunt that put families living nearby at risk as the escaped cons used their homes as hideouts.The film is very spare and terse, which is not a criticism from me. It's a refreshing break from the Hollywood melodrama that characterized glossier, studio-backed movies at the time. But the film is SO bare bones that it's difficult to feel strongly one way or the other about it. Its bargain-bin look is a nice compliment to the story it's telling, but one can't help but miss the style that artists who came with a higher price tag might have brought to the same material.Grade: B

MartinHafer "Canon City" is an interesting prison movie. It has a VERY unusual pedigree, as it was filmed at an actual prison and most of the inmates are real ones! Additionally, the story is true and was filmed in the actual locations where the events unfolded. This, along with the narration, give this a documentary feel much of the time. However, I really don't think the narration was even needed. But, I did like the strange way it was used at the beginning. Reed Hadley (who has a very unmistakable voice and starred in "Racket Squad") begins telling about the story and then introduces the Warden to the audience. Then, the warden begins talking with Hadley and it's all seen from Hadley's perspective--so when he walks about, so does the camera. Innovative but as the film progressed it just seemed a bit intrusive.The story is about a mass prison break. The plot depended on a guy who initially had no interest in breaking out--Sherbondy (Scott Brady). However, they use extortion to force him into participating. While this did make the escape possible, the prisoners might have chosen better, as Sherbondy seemed to have a soul and several times prevented the escaped goons from committing atrocities. This and the family's reaction to this make the film rather interesting. I also thought it was interesting to see Jeff Corey playing such a nasty part, as it was a bit of a departure for him playing such a role.This is not a great prison film--and there are a lot of them. But it is very good and its realism is quite a plus. Good acting and a lot of tension also helped.

bmacv 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.