why the district attorney had a soft spot for this specific young man who accidentally hit a man and caused him death? why the district attorney's daughter also had a soft spot for this guy from the very beginning? why this district attorney then became the warden where this young guy was jailed? in nowadays reality, how it possible those arrangements by the new warden could favor to certain prisoners? and how convenient that the district attorney's and then the warden's daughter, an unique beautiful woman would never have a sweetheart or even got married but remained a spinster who only seemed to love the convicted man so subtly albeit so obviously? do you think that a strong-willed district attorney would have encouraged his daughter to befriend a convict felon wholeheartedly from the very beginning? well, unless his daughter was an ugly woman or a crippled woman then this could have been possible, other than that, a normal law enforcer father would never have his beautiful daughter to be near to a convicted fellow. then again, once became a warden, suddenly his home would be in or close to the prison? and he would have the privilege to allow several prisoners to be at his personal service? givemeabreak, will you? this film is just an utopia- like, completely cosmetically beautified picture to show an unrealistic and totally unlikely scenario to suit the purpose of this film. the whole screenplay was like a mirage, if you could believe it, you could believe anything is possible and a carpenter's son could walk on water other than that British street magician, dynamo.

This is your no-frills prison yarn of a man convicted for involuntary manslaughter. The chief asset of this film is the cast, which is led by the highly competent Broderick Crawford and the talented Glenn Ford. The supporting cast does a great job as well. The filming is stark and realistic. Crawford does some of his best work in this film and Ford is very convincing as the tough luck convict trying to stay straight. Worth viewing.

A remake of Howard Hawks' 1931 The Criminal Code, Convicted serves up Glenn Ford as an average Joe sent up the river for accidentally causing the death of a man in a night-club brawl. Even the district attorney who prosecuted him (Broderick Crawford) finds his crime pardonable, but a bungled defense sent him to the big house. Parole should come early, but members of the board are cronies of the dead man's father, a prominent citizen, so Ford's in for five years. In stir, Ford grows embittered and embraces the curious codes of the cell block. He tries to eschew the obvious dangers of a Draconian guard (Carl Benton Reid) and the obligatory stoolie (Frank Faylen, most vividly remembered as the sinister male nurse in the alcoholic ward of The Lost Weekend). But prison life is grinding him down and he decides to join in a break out. But he ends up in solitary after assaulting a guard minutes after learning his father has died, so escapes the destiny of his comrades, who are slaughtered.. Next, a change of regime: the new warden is none other than good-hearted Crawford, and with newfound liberties as a trusty he grows sweet on Crawford's daughter (Dorothy Malone). But the skies have not yet cleared, because there's a movement to kill Faylen for causing the deaths of the men involved in the prison break.... While not so truculent a prison drama as Brute Force, three years earlier, the more staid Convicted develops with cumulative power. Burnett Guffey photographs the decrepit squalor of the prison with loving revulsion. The script, too, is well written (if lacking the edge of the same year's Caged, set in a women's penitentiary), with a streak of gallows humor shot through it – the warden counts among his household staff a cook who poisoned his wife and a barber who slit a man's throat. The story gets driven by character, as well, and the characters are sharply acted: Millard Mitchell, as Ford's cellmate, and Faylen are especially memorable. Ford, on the other hand, plays the masochist a little too readily, a point that would not be so finely drawn if it didn't parallel so many of his other roles in the noir cycle. As a result, that quintessential bull-in-a-china shop, Crawford, upstages him scene after scene. Despite a wrap-up that's a bit too sunny to swallow, Convicted holds an honorable place in the long line of movies that have peered into the national psychosis we like to refer to as rehabilitation.

Excellent "prison" movie , with several extremely suspenseful scene,particulary the death of convict (informer) Ponti (Frank Feylen ) in a terrifying atmosphere ,with the crowd of cons "yammering" and this clock (featured in almost all the shots of the scene) the hands of which seem stopped on 1:25. In its first part,it's pure film noir,devoid of sentimentality: one is spared the trial with the interminable pleas (it lasts barely one minute) ,and the scene of the telegram avoids pathos and melodrama. But the most interesting thing in the rapport con Joe has with his ex-prosecutor turned jail director :"I was your prosecutor, I won't be your persecutor ";as the movie progresses,their relationship almost becomes a father/son one ; and one can go as far as to say that he suffers as much as him when he sends him to the solitary ;Knowland can't refrain from admiring -in spite of his disapproval- his protégé's honor code .Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford ,sparing of gestures and words ,are extremely convincing. Knowland's daughter is a more conventional character, but Dorothy Malone (who would shine in Sirk's movies) makes all her scenes count .

I thought this movie was well acted Great casting! Too bad they don't make sequels to many of the older movies such as this one. It would be great to follow the lives of the characters, after the ending of the movie!

No need to repeat the plot. Prisons are by nature hothouses of repressed emotion. People locked up in unnatural conditions are grist for strong melodrama. When done right, as in Brute Force (1948) or Riot in Cell Block 11 (1953), the results are powerfully memorable. The trouble with this prison film is that it presents the look but none of the feel of hothouse melodrama. Thus, we get actors hitting their marks and speaking their lines, but with one notable exception, without the needed emotion. For example, the movie's dramatic climax is the anticipated revenge killing of the prison stoolie Ponti. It should be fraught with fear and mixed emotion. Now, Faylen as the stoolie delivers fear in spades and is the exception to the generally colorless performances. However, watch killer Mitchell and how the scene is staged—he's expressionless, minus the satisfaction that avenging his friends should arouse. Moreover, he's filmed at an impersonal distance, suggesting that this is simply one more set-up on a tight shooting schedule. Thus, what should be a very personal act causing our imagination to both leap and recoil as the door closes on the stoolie, fulfills only half of the equation. On a less mixed level, there's guard honcho Carl Benton Reid. He speaks his lines well enough and is otherwise an excellent actor. But here his character exhibits none of the intense features the stereotype implies. Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with stereotypes. It's really a matter of how well you do them. In Reid's case, his killing at the end again arouses no particular feeling beyond that of one more plot device. At the same time and on a bigger scale, when warden Crawford walks among the yammering convicts in the yard, the protesters look nothing like angry mob of the earlier stock shot, but more like well- fed extras standing around on a set. The point is (without going on) that the movie fails to rise above strictly programmer status, despite some clever dialogue, Frank Faylen, and a civilized dust-up between attorneys Crawford and Winters— and also, a sparkling, but largely wasted, Dorothy Malone. The problem, as I see it, lies with the director (Levin) who's responsible for staging the scenes, rehearsing the actors, and creating moods while pinpointing emotions. Mitchell, Reid, Doucette, and Ford are all fine actors, capable of rising to an occasion when called upon. However, they're not called upon here. I'm afraid Levin's preference for frothy comedy shows up in this situation where the material is comedy's polar opposite. So, my guess is that he took the film as simply another studio assignment and coasted through. In passing—I sympathize with Columbia studios and Broderick Crawford. Someone once pointed out that Crawford's probably the worst actor ever to win a top Oscar, and I think that person's right. He's a car with basically one gear—a blustery fast-forward-- and it does get tiresome. As a result, here he is in 1950, suddenly a big name commodity but without the skills to back it up. He's in an embarrassing spot while the studio wonders how best to cash in. Fortunately for both, serial TV is just around the corner. He makes a game try in this film, but unfortunately his pudgy car is just not geared for nuanced emotions. But then, neither is the movie.

Broderick Crawford, (George Knowland) plays the role of a District Attorney and has to bring to justice a man named Joe Hufford, (Glenn Ford) who was drunk and struck a man in a night club and killed him. George Knowland knew that Joe Hufford was a good man who had an excellent military service record and told Joe he should obtain a good lawyer to represent him in a court of law. However, Joe did not obtain a good lawyer and he had to serve one to ten years as a prison sentence. Years go by and eventually George Knowland becomes the Warden of the prison where Joe Hufford is serving his prison sentence. George Knowland shows some mercy to Joe along with his daughter, Kay Knowland, ( Dorothy Malone ) who starts to fall in love with Joe. There is plenty of problems in this prison and lots of surprises. Great 1950 Classic to view and enjoy.

Rather Bland Characters move around the Cold Concrete Yards and in an out of the Prison Environs with not much Emotion and the Whole Film has a Blase Boring Feel to it. Broderick Crawford is Miscast and Dorothy Malone seems to be getting ready for a Fifties Housewife Template and can't wait to Bake Cookies. Glen Ford is Always Watchable but here He doesn't really do much more than Brood. It is the Supporting Players that Add what Zip there is to this Plodding Penitentiary Drama. The Film has Little Style and while it is all put Together Nicely it is just too Nice Looking and Sterile to be Considered a Superior Prison Picture.

In the wake of Broderick Crawford's Oscar for All the King's Men, Columbia Pictures was having difficulty in finding properties for him. It was decided to team him with Columbia reliable leading man work horse Glenn Ford in a remake of The Criminal Code. Convicted since it is remake can't really be blamed for having a lot of cliché in the dialog and plot situations. Just about every prison film deals with the same issues. Since Hollywood dropped the Code, prison films deal far more graphically than before. Still watching Convicted, you get the feeling you've seen it all before and there's nothing really fresh in this film. Glenn Ford kills a man in a nightclub fight. A good lawyer could probably have gotten him off as District Attorney Broderick Crawford tells Ford. Ford unfortunately got pompous Roland Winters who's bag wasn't criminal law. Ford gets a 1 to 10 year sentence. Wouldn't you know it, DA Crawford is appointed the new warden of the prison where Ford is. Since he's living on the grounds his daughter Dorothy Malone moves in with him. Ford by now is a trustee and acts as the warden's chauffeur. But he's still a con, a fact he never forgets and nearly costs him his parole. Dorothy Malone for the first dozen years or so of her career played roles just like this one, good dutiful wives and daughters. No hint of that woman's talent until her Oscar for Written on the Wind. Millard Mitchell and Will Geer are Ford's cellmates and both do a good job. But the best acting in Convicted without a doubt is Frank Faylen as the prison stoolie. Convicted is not a bad film, but there's nothing real special about it in the careers of any of its principal players.

A much underrated prison picture starring Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford, Convicted moves quickly, has some excellent dialogue, and is chock full of great character actors (Frank Faylen, Millard Mitchell, Whit Bissell). Ford doesn't belong in prison and compassionate warden Crawford seeks to help him out. Everything comes together nicely in this film, which has some fine dark-edged photography and a dingier than usual looking prison. Director Henry Levin handles his material as well as a Wellman or a Keighley would have done, and was somewhat of an enigma, capable of making both dreadful and very good films; his work here however is very sure.