***SPOILERS*** The movie was the brainchild of producer Walter Wagner who himself served time behind bars for shooting in the groin his wife actress Joan Bennett's lover press agent Jennings Lang. That's when he caught them red handed smooching in a parked car on December 13, 1951. Sentenced to only four month for attempted murder, he got a brake using the insanity defense, Wagner in the movie "Riot in cell-block 11" was to show the public what the US prison system really is. And how it turns those in it into even worse anti-social psychopaths then when when they first entered it!
Things have being going from bad to worse for the inmates at San Quentin and it's a matter of time before the entire place is going to blow it's top. It's the civic minded Warden Reynolds, Emile Meyer, who wants to give the inmates a reason not to explode by making things a lot better for them. But it's the state that refuses to give him the funds he needs that had things get soon out of hand. It's the predatory and psychotic looking James V. Dunn, Neville Brand, who devises a plan to take over the prison with the help of his fellow inmates and hold it hostage, together with it's personnel, until the Governor Thomas Browne Henry agrees in writing to improve conditions there. A full scale riot breaks out with Dunn and his second in command the deranged and kill crazy gorilla-like "Crazy Mike" Craine, Leo Gordon, taking control of the cell-block together with the prison guards assigned there.
****SPOILERS*** As much as Warden Reynolds tries to prevent the violence from spreading into the other cell-blocks Dunn soon has the entire prison under his control with the national guard and state police, who in fact make things a lot worse, called in to quite things down. Warden Reynolds doesn't get any help from the state commissioner of prisons Haskell, Frank Feylen, who's more interested in using brute force instead of negotiations to settle things down with the inmates. As things later turned out Dunn & Co. got their way with Governor Henry finally giving into to their demands. In him making things better for those behind bars so when they get out they can blend in with society not go to war against it. It also turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for both Dunn and the crazed and violence driven Crazy Mike Carnie who ended up with the short or sh*t end of the stick.
In a way it was a double-cross on the state's part in hanging both Dunne and Crazy Mike Craine out to dry but Warden Reynolds in fact had nothing at all to do with it. But Dunn did get what he set out to do in making conditions better for those serving time in the states prisons but in his breaking the law ended up paying a steep price for doing it! P.S Check out the usually meek and mosey Whit Bissell acting against type as the brutal and sadistic prison guard, that everyone in the "Joint" just couldn't wait to get their hands around his neck, Mister, that he demands to be called,Seden.
Things have being going from bad to worse for the inmates at San Quentin and it's a matter of time before the entire place is going to blow it's top. It's the civic minded Warden Reynolds, Emile Meyer, who wants to give the inmates a reason not to explode by making things a lot better for them. But it's the state that refuses to give him the funds he needs that had things get soon out of hand. It's the predatory and psychotic looking James V. Dunn, Neville Brand, who devises a plan to take over the prison with the help of his fellow inmates and hold it hostage, together with it's personnel, until the Governor Thomas Browne Henry agrees in writing to improve conditions there. A full scale riot breaks out with Dunn and his second in command the deranged and kill crazy gorilla-like "Crazy Mike" Craine, Leo Gordon, taking control of the cell-block together with the prison guards assigned there.
****SPOILERS*** As much as Warden Reynolds tries to prevent the violence from spreading into the other cell-blocks Dunn soon has the entire prison under his control with the national guard and state police, who in fact make things a lot worse, called in to quite things down. Warden Reynolds doesn't get any help from the state commissioner of prisons Haskell, Frank Feylen, who's more interested in using brute force instead of negotiations to settle things down with the inmates. As things later turned out Dunn & Co. got their way with Governor Henry finally giving into to their demands. In him making things better for those behind bars so when they get out they can blend in with society not go to war against it. It also turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for both Dunn and the crazed and violence driven Crazy Mike Carnie who ended up with the short or sh*t end of the stick.
In a way it was a double-cross on the state's part in hanging both Dunne and Crazy Mike Craine out to dry but Warden Reynolds in fact had nothing at all to do with it. But Dunn did get what he set out to do in making conditions better for those serving time in the states prisons but in his breaking the law ended up paying a steep price for doing it! P.S Check out the usually meek and mosey Whit Bissell acting against type as the brutal and sadistic prison guard, that everyone in the "Joint" just couldn't wait to get their hands around his neck, Mister, that he demands to be called,Seden.