Perfect cast and a good story

Fantastic!

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This one came right out of left field. I tuned in because I like Mickey Rooney and crime pictures in equal measure, but ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for. The Last Mile is one of the bleakest American films I've ever seen, a no holds barred depiction of life (so to speak) on Death Row. The tone is decidedly European; if Ingmar Bergman had ever made a prison flick, this would have been it. This is all the more surprising considering Howard Koch served as director and future Amicus honchos Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg produced! The cast is uniformly excellent, with especial kudos to Rooney as Killer Mears, Ford Rainey as Red Kirby (whose 30 day stay comes into play during the film's second act), and Leon Janney as sadistic prison guard Callahan (a role I can also imagine James Craig essaying with equal relish). Van Alexander contributes a fantastic, jazz-inflected score, Joseph Brun's black and white cinematography is frequently stunning, and the whole thing reminded me of Jacques Becker's Le Trou, which in my opinion is very high praise indeed!

The movie may be a cheap-jack production, but it also has a number of graphic touches including Rooney's absolutely riveting performance. With its single set, ugly b&w photography, and no-name cast (except for Rooney), I can't imagine the film played more than a few remote drive-in's farthest from town. Nonetheless, the 80-minutes pushes the bounds of 50's movie-making in several notable ways.For example, catch how much emotional fear the doomed men—whether guards or cons— show when facing death. It's really unusual for that period to risk agitating audiences with realistic fears of death. But this one does. Also, the ricocheting bullets had me ducking under my chair— a really well done special effect. Actually, this cheapo comes closer to Sam Peckinpah's raw depiction of violence than about any film I've seen from that time—bullets actually raise blood, and despite their pleading people do get shot point blank. I'm guessing the producers got away with this because Hollywood didn't much care what a few necking teenagers might use for background.It's an ugly movie in more ways than one—not a single woman in sight!-- just a bunch of ugly guys. At the same time, the first half too often drags before picking up with the slam-bang second half. Then too, have you ever seen a more barren or squeakier clean cell block, likely a reflection of the story's stage origins. Anyway, it's Rooney at his most intense. And despite the movie's really brutal nature, there are more moments of genuine honesty than in most A-productions of the period. But it's not one you want to see if you're feeling down.

Saw this movie when it came out in 1959, left a lasting impression. Great group of actors. A little short timewise but a great movie all the same. Have only seen once since then and that was some time ago. Hopefully they'll put it out on DVD if they haven't already.

This is a very grim, hard hitting, even brutal film about a death row break that goes awry. It's black and white photography keeps it from being dated. Mickey Rooney is excellent as the twisted, yet strangely sympathetic lead. One of the first movies to portray the psychological desolation of death row. It is also quite poignant.