THE STEEL JUNGLE – 1956
This 1956 Warner Brothers film is an effective prison noir from late in the cycle. Headlining the cast are Perry Lopez, Ted de Corsia, Bev Garland, Leo Gordon, Walter Abel, Ken Tobey and Greg Walcott.
Perry Lopez is a bookie who gets gobbled up by the cops. He figures no problem, as he pays protection to rackets boss, Ted de Corcia. The Police however are not amused with the "Syndicate" and send Lopez up for a year in stir.
Inside he runs into the mob boss, de Corcia. it seems de Corica was the rackets man that Lopez has been paying protection to. He wants de Corcia to help him get early release. His wife, Bev Garland, is up the stump and Lopez wants to be on hand for the birth. De Corica gets a laugh out the new kid and blows him off with a promise to look into it.
Needless to say Lopez gets himself mixed up in a beef. The warden, Walter Abel offers time off if he will rat on the others. Lopez refuses the offer. The other inmates think he has turned rat anyway when given a cushy job. This leads to more violence and the killing of a guard. Trying to help Lopez is Kenneth Tobey, the prison head shrink. Lopez finally helps when De Corsia and his henchman, Leo Gordon set him up to be killed by a guard on the take, Greg Walcott.
Anyways, everything turns out right with Lopez getting out for the birth of his child, while de Corcia, Gordon and Walcott get their just desserts.
Actor Leo Gordon was right at home in prison films, as he had done several years on an armed robbery beef in real life. Director Don Siegel called Gordon the scariest man he ever met, while working with him on, RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11.
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