Crane Wilbur - Film Noir Foundation

story makes clear that it is not really the prison structure itself, but
instead the men running the institution who are the deciding factor.
At the crux of the story is a philosophical battle between Folsom’s
ruthless warden (Ted de Corsia)—with his often inhumane
treatment of the prisoners—and his new college-educated Captain
of the guards (David Brian), who has what de Corsia dismisses as a
“society’s to blame” approach. Though Steve Cochran receives top
billing as an inmate who leads the film’s climactic prison break, it is
de Corsia who gives the film’s standout performance, bringing nuances
to what could easily be a one-dimensional “bad warden” part.
Wilbur’s dialogue helps in spots, such as a scene where a reporter
quizzes de Corsia’s Warden Rickey about the reasons for some extra
security procedures.
Warden Rickey: “We lost a warden that way once.”
Reporter: “(A) good warden?”
Rickey: “Not bad—as wardens go.”
Wilbur followed his usual production and writing methodology
by going to Folsom early, getting to know the warden, guards and
prisoners, and observing their processes. “I went there a couple of
weeks in advance of when I would start shooting. I wanted to round
out what I had written. I wanted to see that it was true. I didn’t want
it all to be a lot of crap, if you know what I mean.”
Wilbur integrated several of his experiences into the story, including
a throwaway bit about an old inmate who refused to leave the
prison, even after his parole was up, because he had become attached
to a dog who didn’t want to leave the prison grounds. The film liberally
utilized real Folsom locations.
Considering the film’s focus on reforming the methods of a ruthless
and nearly criminal warden (which bears similarities to earlier Wilbur
adapted scenarios such as Crime School and Hell’s Kitchen), it may
seem surprising that the film was made with the full cooperation of
Folsom and California prison authorities. However, the issue of the
outmoded prison practices is explained via narration,
which states that this story was set many
years ago, and didn’t reflect the Folsom of today.
However, other than the film’s use of vintage automobiles,
there is nothing to indicate that the
film doesn’t take place in 1951.
Wilbur’s increasing familiarity with the prisoners
during pre-production nearly resulted in
a catastrophe, when Folsom’s real warden informed
Crane that an informer had leaked information
that a group of inmates planned to
kidnap Wilbur and use him as a hostage in a
breakout attempt. Several of the prisoners with
whom Wilbur had become well-acquainted—including
a murderer, a robbery-kidnapper and an
organized crime figure—later told him, individually,
that each had used his influence to put the
kibosh on the kidnap plan.
Despite many positives in performance,
screenplay and atmosphere, Folsom Prison sports
occasional clichés, and the feeling that several potentially
dramatic scenes are held back slightly in
their execution. Wilbur, the director, was perhaps
not always the best man film his own screenplays.
In retrospect, most of the best noirs with which
Wilbur was involved as a writer—He Walked by Night, Crime Wave
and The Phenix City Story—were piloted by more highly-regarded
directors. Perhaps Bryan Foy and Warner Bros. had the same opinion,
since Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison proved to be Crane Wilbur’s
last feature film as a director for eight years.
The Peak, Then Decline
After next writing a pair of non-noir color films for Warners (the
Western The Lion and the Horse [1952], and the religious-themed
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima [1952]), Wilbur returned to
crime with the screenplay for Crime Wave, working from an adaptation
by Bernard Gordon and Richard Wormser of a John and Ward
Hawkins Saturday Evening Post story. Shot over 13 days in 1952 by
André de Toth, mostly in real Los Angeles locations, Crime Wave has
a very similar premise to Outside the Wall—a parolee trying to go
straight is sucked back into his old life by the sudden appearance of
a mortally-wounded former cellmate who’s been involved in a heist.
However, the results are far different and vastly superior, thanks to
the direction of de Toth, outstanding performances by a cast that
includes Sterling Hayden and “Folsom warden” Ted de Corsia, and
the atmospheric location photography.
Nevertheless, Crime Wave was inexplicably shelved until 1954,
while Wilbur, Foy, and de Toth reconvened for House of Wax
(1953)—a 3D horror remake of Warners’ original two-strip Technicolor
The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1932). Wilbur set the remake
a bit earlier than the original, giving the story a bit of a “gas
lamp” Victorian atmosphere, while downplaying some of the comicrelief
elements of the earlier version. Thanks in large part to de Toth’s
focus on dramatic tension over 3D effects he couldn’t see with only
one good eye, the film was a tremendous hit, launching a second
career for Vincent Price as a horror star. Flush with success, Bryan
Foy took his production shingle over to Harry Cohn’s Columbia Pictures,
for a 1954 follow-up with Price entitled The Mad Magician.
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