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THE LONGEST YARD (1974)
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The protagonist is Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Burt Reynolds), former star pro football quarterback living with his wealthy girlfriend Melissa (Anitra Ford), in Palm Beach, Florida. After a fight with her, he gets drunk and "steals" her expensive Citroën SM automobile. He is surprised when a fleet of police cars follow him. Briefly evading them, he exits the vehicle and sends it off a dock into the bay. He is caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Crewe has difficulty getting along with the guards as well as with his fellow inmates. The convicts despise him because he was dismissed from the National Football League for point shaving. The sadistic, power-hungry warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert), a football fanatic who manages a semi-pro team made up of the prison's guards (most of whom are big and fast enough to play professionally), wants Crewe to help coach the team. Responding to pressure from the guards' leader and coach, Captain Wilhelm Knauer (Ed Lauter), Crewe refuses. He is harassed by the guards and given backbreaking work as punishment. Crewe relents and agrees to form a prisoner team to play the guards' team in an exhibition "tune-up" game. Crewe finds that most of the inmates have no football experience, and it seems extremely doubtful that they could seriously take on the guards. Adding to Crewe's problems, the black inmates refuse to play.
Crewe eventually builds trust amongst key members of the prison community. Promising them that they can inflict excessive injuries on their opponents, he manages to form a team capable of playing the guards. The team includes the most dangerous and violent prisoners. Among the most impressive are Samson (Richard Kiel), a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) former professional weightlifter, and Connie Shokner (Robert Tessier), a fearsome serial killer and martial arts expert. With the help of the clever Caretaker (James Hampton), veteran former professional player Nate Scarborough (Michael Conrad), "Granny" Granville (Harry Caesar), long-term prisoner Pop (John Steadman) — who remains in prison far past his original sentence for having struck Warden Hazen when the warden was just a rookie guard — and the warden's amorous secretary, Miss Toot (Bernadette Peters), Crewe molds the prisoners into a smoothly working football team named the "Mean Machine".
Before the game, an arsonist named Unger (Charles Tyner), schemes to kill Crewe by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. Caretaker is killed in the blaze in Crewe's cell after he goes there to retrieve X-rays for Crewe, who is sitting in Caretaker's cell with Nate.
As the game starts, the "Mean Machine" does well, and at halftime the game is close, with the guards leading, 15-13. Cornering Crewe in the locker room, Hazen berates him for trying to win the game and tells Crewe that he has Unger in custody and that he is willing to testify that Crewe was an accessory to Caretaker's murder unless Crewe loses the game to the guards by at least 21 points. Crewe reluctantly and angrily agrees, but obtains a promise from Hazen that if he cooperates, the other prisoners will not be harmed. However, Hazen tells Captain Knauer to order his players to "inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as humanly possible" as soon as they are ahead by 21 points. Crewe quickly makes several deliberate mistakes putting the "Mean Machine" down by more than three touchdowns, 35-13, then takes himself out of the game. With the prisoners demoralized, the guards then take out their anger on the prisoners, causing several injuries.
The protagonist is Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Burt Reynolds), former star pro football quarterback living with his wealthy girlfriend Melissa (Anitra Ford), in Palm Beach, Florida. After a fight with her, he gets drunk and "steals" her expensive Citroën SM automobile. He is surprised when a fleet of police cars follow him. Briefly evading them, he exits the vehicle and sends it off a dock into the bay. He is caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Crewe has difficulty getting along with the guards as well as with his fellow inmates. The convicts despise him because he was dismissed from the National Football League for point shaving. The sadistic, power-hungry warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert), a football fanatic who manages a semi-pro team made up of the prison's guards (most of whom are big and fast enough to play professionally), wants Crewe to help coach the team. Responding to pressure from the guards' leader and coach, Captain Wilhelm Knauer (Ed Lauter), Crewe refuses. He is harassed by the guards and given backbreaking work as punishment. Crewe relents and agrees to form a prisoner team to play the guards' team in an exhibition "tune-up" game. Crewe finds that most of the inmates have no football experience, and it seems extremely doubtful that they could seriously take on the guards. Adding to Crewe's problems, the black inmates refuse to play.
Crewe eventually builds trust amongst key members of the prison community. Promising them that they can inflict excessive injuries on their opponents, he manages to form a team capable of playing the guards. The team includes the most dangerous and violent prisoners. Among the most impressive are Samson (Richard Kiel), a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) former professional weightlifter, and Connie Shokner (Robert Tessier), a fearsome serial killer and martial arts expert. With the help of the clever Caretaker (James Hampton), veteran former professional player Nate Scarborough (Michael Conrad), "Granny" Granville (Harry Caesar), long-term prisoner Pop (John Steadman) — who remains in prison far past his original sentence for having struck Warden Hazen when the warden was just a rookie guard — and the warden's amorous secretary, Miss Toot (Bernadette Peters), Crewe molds the prisoners into a smoothly working football team named the "Mean Machine".
Before the game, an arsonist named Unger (Charles Tyner), schemes to kill Crewe by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. Caretaker is killed in the blaze in Crewe's cell after he goes there to retrieve X-rays for Crewe, who is sitting in Caretaker's cell with Nate.
As the game starts, the "Mean Machine" does well, and at halftime the game is close, with the guards leading, 15-13. Cornering Crewe in the locker room, Hazen berates him for trying to win the game and tells Crewe that he has Unger in custody and that he is willing to testify that Crewe was an accessory to Caretaker's murder unless Crewe loses the game to the guards by at least 21 points. Crewe reluctantly and angrily agrees, but obtains a promise from Hazen that if he cooperates, the other prisoners will not be harmed. However, Hazen tells Captain Knauer to order his players to "inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as humanly possible" as soon as they are ahead by 21 points. Crewe quickly makes several deliberate mistakes putting the "Mean Machine" down by more than three touchdowns, 35-13, then takes himself out of the game. With the prisoners demoralized, the guards then take out their anger on the prisoners, causing several injuries.
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Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Writing credits
Albert S. Ruddy
story
Tracy Keenan Wynn
Cast
Burt Reynolds...Paul Crewe
Eddie Albert...Warden Hazen
Ed Lauter...Captain Knauer
Michael Conrad...Nate Scarboro
James Hampton...Caretaker (as Jim Hampton)
Harry Caesar...Granville
John Steadman...Pop
Charles Tyner...Unger
Mike Henry...Rassmeusen
Jim Nicholson...Ice Man
Bernadette Peters...Miss Toot
Pervis Atkins...Mawabe
Tony Cacciotti...Rotka
Anitra Ford...Melissa Gaines
Michael Fox...Announcer
Joe Kapp...Walking Boss
Richard Kiel...Samson (as Dick Kiel)
Pepper Martin...Shop Steward
Mort Marshall...Assistant Warden
Ray Nitschke...Bogdanski
Tony Reese...Levitt
Sonny Sixkiller...The Indian
Robert Tessier...Shokner
Dino Washington...Mason
Ernie Wheelwright...Spooner
Joe Dorsey...Bartender (as Joseph Dorsey)
Gus Carlucci...Team Doctor (as Dr. Gus Carlucci)
Jack Rockwell...Trainer
Sonny Shroyer...Tannen
Ray Ogden...Schmidt
Don Ferguson...Referee
Chuck Hayward...Trooper I
Alfie Wise...Trooper II
Steve Wilder...J.J.
George Jones...Big George
Wilbur Gillian...Big Wilbur
Wilson Warren...Buttercup
Joe Jackson...Little Joe
Howard Silverstein...Howie
Donald Hixon...Donny
Lance Fuller
J. Don Ferguson...Football Referee (uncredited)
Harold Morris...Extra (uncredited)
Bill Rampley...Guard / Football Player (uncredited)
Phillip Wende...Guard (uncredited)
Produced by
Alan P. Horowitz....associate producer
Albert S. Ruddy....producer
Original Music by
Frank De Vol
Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editing by
Michael Luciano
Joyce Selznick
Steven R. Stevens
Production Design by
James Dowell Vance
Set Decoration by
Raphael Bretton
(uncredited)
Makeup Department
Tom Ellingwood....makeup artist
Production Management
Russell Saunders....production manager
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Clifford C. Coleman....assistant director
Hal Needham....second unit director: car chase sequence
Ron Wright....second assistant director
Art Department
Horst Grandt....property master
Sound Department
Howard Beals....sound editor
Gordon Daniel....sound editor
Jim Foglesong....recordings supervisor
James Fritch....sound editor (as Jim Fritch)
John Wilkinson....sound re-recording mixer
Robert Aldrich
Writing credits
Albert S. Ruddy
story
Tracy Keenan Wynn
Cast
Burt Reynolds...Paul Crewe
Eddie Albert...Warden Hazen
Ed Lauter...Captain Knauer
Michael Conrad...Nate Scarboro
James Hampton...Caretaker (as Jim Hampton)
Harry Caesar...Granville
John Steadman...Pop
Charles Tyner...Unger
Mike Henry...Rassmeusen
Jim Nicholson...Ice Man
Bernadette Peters...Miss Toot
Pervis Atkins...Mawabe
Tony Cacciotti...Rotka
Anitra Ford...Melissa Gaines
Michael Fox...Announcer
Joe Kapp...Walking Boss
Richard Kiel...Samson (as Dick Kiel)
Pepper Martin...Shop Steward
Mort Marshall...Assistant Warden
Ray Nitschke...Bogdanski
Tony Reese...Levitt
Sonny Sixkiller...The Indian
Robert Tessier...Shokner
Dino Washington...Mason
Ernie Wheelwright...Spooner
Joe Dorsey...Bartender (as Joseph Dorsey)
Gus Carlucci...Team Doctor (as Dr. Gus Carlucci)
Jack Rockwell...Trainer
Sonny Shroyer...Tannen
Ray Ogden...Schmidt
Don Ferguson...Referee
Chuck Hayward...Trooper I
Alfie Wise...Trooper II
Steve Wilder...J.J.
George Jones...Big George
Wilbur Gillian...Big Wilbur
Wilson Warren...Buttercup
Joe Jackson...Little Joe
Howard Silverstein...Howie
Donald Hixon...Donny
Lance Fuller
J. Don Ferguson...Football Referee (uncredited)
Harold Morris...Extra (uncredited)
Bill Rampley...Guard / Football Player (uncredited)
Phillip Wende...Guard (uncredited)
Produced by
Alan P. Horowitz....associate producer
Albert S. Ruddy....producer
Original Music by
Frank De Vol
Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editing by
Michael Luciano
Joyce Selznick
Steven R. Stevens
Production Design by
James Dowell Vance
Set Decoration by
Raphael Bretton
(uncredited)
Makeup Department
Tom Ellingwood....makeup artist
Production Management
Russell Saunders....production manager
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Clifford C. Coleman....assistant director
Hal Needham....second unit director: car chase sequence
Ron Wright....second assistant director
Art Department
Horst Grandt....property master
Sound Department
Howard Beals....sound editor
Gordon Daniel....sound editor
Jim Foglesong....recordings supervisor
James Fritch....sound editor (as Jim Fritch)
John Wilkinson....sound re-recording mixer