Directed by:
Abner BibermanScreenplay:
Harold Jack BloomCinematography:
Maury GertsmanCast:
Tom Tully, Sylvia Sidney, John Gavin, George Barrows, William Boyett, Bing Russell, Don Beddoe, John Larch, Bert Stevens, Dale Van Sickel, John Beradino (more)Plots(1)
Behind the High Wall is a remake of the 1937 Jackie Cooper-Victor McLaglen film The Big Guy. Tom Tully plays prison warden Frank Carmichael, who is kidnapped during a jail break in which a policeman is killed. In an ensuing car crash, all the escapees are killed except young Johnny Hutchins (John Gavin). Though he knows that Hutchins had nothing to do with the cop's murder, Carmichael refuses to intervene when Johnny is condemned to death. It seems that the escaping convicts had been carrying $100,000 in stolen money with them, which Carmichael has hidden away for his own use. By eliminating Hutchins, the warden is also getting rid of the only potential witness to his own perfidy. Sylvia Sidney is pure venom as Carmichael's crippled, greedy wife, while Betty Lynn (who later played Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show) also registers well as Johnny's agonizing fiancee. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Tom Tully
USA
Best movies:
Ten North Frederick (1958)
The Sign of the Cross (1932)
The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Sylvia Sidney
USA
Best movies:
Fury (1936)
Dead End (1937)
An Early Frost (1985) (TV movie)
John Gavin
USA
Best movies:
Psycho (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980) (TV movie)
George Barrows
USA
Best movies:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
The Jayhawkers (1959)
Imitation of Life (1959)
William Boyett
USA
Best movies:
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
Airport (1970)
How the West Was Won (1976) (series)
Bing Russell
USA
Best movies:
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Don Beddoe
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Talk of the Town (1942)
Caged (1950)
John Larch
USA
Best movies:
Dirty Harry (1971)
War and Remembrance (1988) (series)
Hell to Eternity (1960)
Bert Stevens
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Dale Van Sickel
USA
Best movies:
North by Northwest (1959)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
John Beradino
USA
Best movies:
North by Northwest (1959)
East of Eden (1955)
Marty (1955)
Ralph Brooks
USA
Best movies:
Love Crazy (1941)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Hal Taggart
USA
Best movies:
The Graduate (1967)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Peter Leeds
USA
Best movies:
Stalag 17 (1953)
Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)
The Devil's Disciple (1959) - narrator
Amzie Strickland
USA
Best movies:
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scarlet Street (1945)
William Forrest
USA
Best movies:
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
One Man Mutiny (1955)
Betty Lynn
USA
Best movies:
The Hangman (1959)
Many Rivers to Cross (1955)
Jack Mather
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Barney Phillips
USA
Best movies:
Julie (1956)
Columbo (1971) (series)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Floyd Simmons
USA
Best movies:
Party Girl (1958)
Written on the Wind (1956)
Away All Boats (1956)