By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1980 true-life prison drama Escape, starring Timothy Bottoms, Kay Lenz, Colleen Dewhurst and Antonio Fargas.
In the 1970s and 1980s, US TV networks loved many things when it came to the production of their telemovies, and two of their main go-to tropes were true stories and cashing in on big screen success stories. Major US network CBS hit a double jackpot with the unfortunately drearily titled Escape, which was first broadcast on February 20, 1980. Not only was it the true story of prison escapee Dwight Worker, it also shared many similarities with the 1978 smash hit big screen feature Midnight Express.
Based on the true story of drug smuggler Billy Hayes, who escaped from a hellish Turkish prison after enduring years of cruelty and abuse, Midnight Express was penned by Oliver Stone and directed by Alan Parker in a striking combination of stark brutality and poetic sensitivity. Though controversial for its harsh representation of Turkey, it’s a truly great film, and deservingly copped multiple Oscar nominations (Stone and composer Giorgio Moroder both scored gongs for their stellar work), as well as making leading man Brad Davis a star and triumphing at the box office.
The two-years-later telemovie Escape is compelling and highly enjoyable, but it certainly lacks the rougher edges of Midnight Express (there’s no suggested homosexuality here, and there’s most definitely no agonised jerk-off scene) while still evoking the horrors of a brutal prison. Like Billy Hayes, Dwight Worker was an average-joe type American who made the big, big mistake of trying to smuggle drugs in a foreign country. Instead of Turkey, Worker strapped a stash under a fake body cast on his way out of Mexico, and paid the price with prison time…hard prison time.
Played by popular 1970s leading man Timothy Bottoms in his characteristically mannered but likeable style, Dwight Worker is beaten and exploited by his fellow prisoners and the prison’s corrupt officials, but slowly, surely adapts to his new life behind bars. Dwight even begins a relationship with nurse Barbara Chilcoate (played by ever gutsy and charming 1970s mainstay Kay Lenz, who should have been a much bigger star), who visits him in prison with a mutual friend.
But it’s this relationship that amps up Dwight’s desperation to bust out. Fully aware of the horrific conditions that her new boyfriend has endured, feisty single mum Barbara is a willing accomplice, and with the help of highly astute fellow American Lily Levinson (Colleen Dewhurst in cracking form) – who lives in Mexico and keeps a motherly eye on another prisoner – they hatch a plan to get Dwight out. Unlike Midnight Express, however, there’s no violence here – the plan is for Dwight to merely walk out of prison…dressed as a woman.
While the scheme certainly lacks the complex planning of Escape From Alcatraz or The Shawshank Redemption, it’s nicely played out by hard-working TV director Robert Lewis and equally hard-working TV scribe Michael Zagor (who adapts Dwight and Barbara’s book with lean efficiency), who dose the play-by-play with genuine suspense and excitement. Of course, the big moment of the film comes with the reveal of Bottoms in drag, and he’s pretty convincing, even looking a bit like cult actress Mary Woronov in the process.
As well as the leads, there’s some great talent in the supporting cast, with TV legend Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear from Starsky And Hutch) as Dwight’s savvy prison buddy; famed character actor Vincent Schiavelli as a creepy prison toady; Miguel Angel Suarez (who featured in another fine prison flick with Stir Crazy) as the nasty but strangely likeable prison boss; and Allan Miller as an odious government official.
Thrilling and genuinely moving, Escape is a small screen rip-job that really works.
Availability: Escape is available to stream for free in pristine condition on TUBI.
