A college professor convicted of manslaughter and a corrections officer just beginning his new job both try to survive the rigors of time behind bars in a rough state prison. Filmed in an actual prison with real convicts as extras, this acclaimed TV-movie, from a story by Truman Capote and Wyatt Cooper, is frank and brutal but doesn't show much headway from the James Cagney movies on the late show. Director Tom Gries won an Emmy for his work, but there's too much of swaggering Vic Morrow as the proverbial head honcho of the prison ward, and the rest of the supporting characters are just as clichéd. Purports to be a realistic portrait of a convict's experience, but the old Hollywood machinery is in full force regardless.
Review of The Glass House
