"Riot In Cell Block 11" + Elizabeth

It's a little difficult to write a movie review in light of everything that's going on, just because the news is so unsettling and distracting, but I'll give it a shot anyway. 

Tonight's picture was once again "ripped straight from the headlines", not as fully as "The Killer That Stalked New York", but it was topical all the same. The title speaks for itself : "Riot In Cell Block 11"(1954), the story of a prison uprising led by inmates rebelling against what they feel are inhumane conditions. And as violent as these guys are, you actually have some sympathy for them as they list their complaints. Though they belong in prison, they have some legitimate beefs, compared to the rioters in Washington DC, who stormed the capitol because their seditious, insane cult leader can't admit he lost the election.

The movie was directed by Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry fame, and there isn't a set-up or plot. He shows us the riot in real time. It begins right away, in a isolation block that holds the prison's most dangerous inmates, some of whom are psychotic and some who are barely out of their teens. This is one of the complaints listed by Neville Brand, the leader of the convicts, that crazies and young 'uns should not be housed in the prison at large, but sectioned off in their own wards. Brand, who will always be known for his performance in Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive", was a very good actor whose looks, and perhaps the roles he was offered as a result, went strikingly downhill in fast fashion. Here he is strong, tall and athletic, with an unlined face. See him 27 years later in Hooper's movie, and he looks fried to a crisp, though his acting is still fantastic. In "Cell Block 11", his right hand man is Leo Gordon, an actor we've commented on recently. To recap, Gordon was a regular on Western TV shows of the 1950s, and he made many films as well. He also wrote several screeplays for television. But what makes him so interesting was his background. He really had been in prison, doing hard time, but he reformed his life, and when he got out he became a famous actor. If I'm not mistaken he did at least five years in San Quentin (where "Cell Block 11" was filmed), and besides his acting talent it's his physical presence that makes him so memorable. He's broad shouldered and muscular, with no fat, and he has the hard face of a real prisoner. Gordon must have been an intelligent man to change his life to the extent that he did, but his onscreen persona is downright scary from actually having lived his role.

And, in this film he plays one of the psychos who should be in a mental ward instead of solitary confinement. Just when Neville Brand is starting to make progress in his negotiations with the warden, Leo Gordon hijacks his leadership, and the situation breaks down into mayhem. Guards are held hostage. The State Police are called in with orders to shoot to kill.

"Riot In Cell Block 11" classifies as a prison flick with a strong social conscience, but devoid of dramatic conventions. There are no cutaways to outside characters at other locations, or interwoven subthemes. The riot is in your face from the start, and Siegel uses the confines of San Quentin as a device to ratchet up the tension, which never lets up. I was surprised to see it was a Criterion release, uploaded right there on Youtube, so the print is once again razor sharp, and it's a hell of a movie. But the current flick in Washington is more frightening.  /////

Elizabeth, I am glad you are writing songs again. Your new one is deeply personal, which is why I didn't comment on Instagram, but your lyrics are beautiful and of course that's where you are always gonna get your best material : when you are writing straight from the heart......I hope all is going well for you in every way, and I also hope that (yeah I always harp on it, lol) that you will make an album of your songs. Maybe you could work toward releasing at least one of them in a completed version? I will hope so and keep fingers crossed.  :):)

That's all I know for tonight. Just like you, I wish peace for the world, but I am dismayed that nothing serious is being done to stop this SOB in the White House. I was heartened to see Colin Powell who said on MSNBC that the military should be deployed to protect against any further threats from Trump and his faction. I am a big supporter of the armed forces of the United States of America, because they have always protected us from threats to our country. And while I am fully aware of unjust wars and misadventures (so don't waste your breath), without a military we would be toast in two seconds, just as our cities would be toast without police. The last couple of days have proved that. We're looking at "Walking Dead" scenarios, where violent mobs take what they want, if we don't put the hammer of law enforcement down on these lowlifes, and cut the heads off of their leadership, and do it now.

Sorry to end the blog on a bum note, but this isn't a joke, it's not just some guy in a wolf skin and steer horns who led the charge on the Capitol. It was the fucking so-called president. In other countries, he would have already been dealt with, and been done with. If we don't do the same, it's to our own peril.

See you in the morning. Tons and tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)