Cinema: The New Pictures, Feb. 15, 1954

Riot in Cell Block 11 (Allied Artists) is the best prison movie produced in years. It employs what Hollywood chooses to call the "semidocumentary" style—which generally means only that the picture has no love story. In this case, it means something resembling clever crusading journalism, with a weather eye on the circulation figures. There is a moral in Producer Walter Wanger's tale: the need for reform in U.S. penal institutions is critical. The moral is slickly coated with violence, however, and the pill should go down easy with the mass public.

The plot...

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