Four Men in Prison

Four Men in Prison
Directed by	Max Anderson
Written by	Mark Benney
Produced by	John Grierson
Production company	Crown Film Unit
Release date	1950 (1950)
Running time	41 minutes
Country	England
Language	English
Budget	£16,000

Four Men In Prison is a 1950 semi-documentary short film about English prison conditions directed by Max Anderson and produced by John Grierson. Filmed at Wakefield Prison, it was commissioned for the purpose of educating people involved in criminal justice.

The film was criticised for being inaccurate and sensational, and was quickly withdrawn.

Production

The film was made for educational purposes by the Central Office of Information to be shown privately to magistrates and others who were involved in administering criminal justice.The Home Office initiated production of the film, which cost £16,000. It was one of three produced under Donald Taylor at the Crown Film Unit and completed in 1950.

Synopsis

The film deals with penology. It is semi-documentary. It depicts the impact that living in prison has on four very different offenders. One is serving a short sentence for a first-time offence, one is a youthful thief who is mentally sub-normal, one is being given training to prevent him from turning into a habitual criminal and the fourth is a hardened criminal who knows the ropes of prison existence.

Reception

The film was aired for the first time at a magistrate's conference. The reaction was immediate and public, with the film condemned for inaccuracy and sensationalism. The magistrates said the first offender and the mentally defective thief would not in fact have been sentenced in jail. The film "disappeared under a ban of official disapproval."

Cast

• William Mervyn
• Arthur Mullard as prison officer
• Johnny Singer as Edward Hope
• Ian Sadler as Henry Pectable
• Cameron Hall as Stephen Laggerty
• Oscar Quitak as Albert Oddy

Sources

• Birch, Nigel (15 December 1950). "The following pieces of information have been extracted from various Ministers ..." The Spectator. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
• "COI Collection Vol 1 - Police and Thieves". Amazon. 15 February 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
• Ellis, Jack C. (1989). The Documentary Idea: A Critical History of English-Language Documentary Film and Video. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-217142-7. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
• Ellis, Jack C. (2000). John Grierson: Life, Contributions, Influence. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2242-8. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
• Ellis, Jack C.; McLane, Betsy A. (2005). A New History of Documentary Film. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1750-3. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
• Enticknap, Leo Douglas Graham (1999). The Non-fiction Film in Britain, 1945-51. University of Exeter.
• Fox, Lionel W. (1952). The English Prison and Borstal Systems. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-26638-6. Retrieved 6 February 2014.

External links

• Four Men in Prison at IMDb