Framed (1975) (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Phil KarlsonRelease Date(s)
1975 (May 27, 2026)Studio(s)
Mort Briskin Productions/Paramount Pictures (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: B-
- Extras Grade: B
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
Revenge movies provide motivation for a character’s actions. Vengeance figures significantly in Straw Dogs, Death Wish, the Kill Bill movies, Gladiator and The Godfather, maybe the greatest vengeance movie of them all. In Framed, a wronged man spends his time in prison planning how to get back at those responsible for sending him there.
Tennessee bar owner Ron Lewis (Joe Don Baker) gets wind of a high-stakes poker game with big spenders from New York. His girlfriend, Susan Barrett (Conny Van Dyke), the featured singer at the bar, wants him to quit gambling and settle down. But Ron sits in on the game and walks away with a satchel filled with cash.
Driving home, Ron is shot at on a lonely country road. As he pulls into his garage, Deputy Haskins (Roy Jenson) tries to arrest him for murder. A fight ensues, and Ron beats the deputy to death in self-defense. The sheriff and other officials arrive on the scene, secretly steal the satchel from Ron’s car, and arrest him for murder. Ron’s lawyer, Andrew Key (Joshua Bryant), advises Ron to accept a plea deal to lessen a potential prison term. Key, however, is in collusion with Sheriff Morello (Warren J. Kemmerling) to avoid a trial that could expose them all. Ron is sent to prison.
Knowing he’s been railroaded, Ron asks Susan to hire a private detective, but the culprits get wind of this and hire a couple of thugs (Paul Mantee, Hunter von Leer) to stop her. This they do in a most violent manner.
Meanwhile, Ron’s bloody self-defense battles and reputation as a card player induce big-time mob boss Sal Viccarrone (John Marley) and his henchman Vince (Gabriel Dell) to take him under their wing in exchange for proceeds from Ron’s poker-playing prowess. Through his connections, Sal arranges parole for Ron and he’s released after five years. With pent-up anger and new freedom, Ron sets out to discover the truth and claim vengeance.
Brock Peters has small role as Sam Perry, the token Black cop on the force, who supplies Ron with crucial information. Peters plays Sam with controlled but powerful intensity and may leave the viewer wishing that there had been more screen time for him to reveal his complex motivations.
The team that made the successful Walking Tall in 1973 joined forces again for Framed. Director Phil Karlson, screenwriter Mort Briskin, and star Joe Don Baker fill the movie with brutal violence, bloody gore, and torture. Baker’s Ron Lewis, calm on the surface, is a man capable of unspeakable physical harm, but only to those who deserve it. To get to the bottom of who framed him, he has to navigate a twisted stream of entrenched corruption that stretches up from law enforcement through legal defense and into government. Lewis isn’t intimidated by those in power. In fact, he takes pleasure in dealing with them head-on, on his own terms.
Baker is a big, muscular man, but projects a gentle manner that belies his character’s capacity for intense violence. When we first meet his Ron, he’s self-assured, aggressive as a gambler, and devoted to girlfriend Susan. He seems like the type of guy you might find in any bar in the south. But when triggered, he goes into killer mode. With Susan, he shows a softer side. He’s not a total brute.
Conny Van Dyke is attractive and has a mildly pleasant singing voice. Her Susan has only one major dramatic scene. Usually in the bar performing or chatting with Ron, Van Dyke’s acting is shaky, though she does manage to summon some terror when thugs threaten Susan’s life.
The violent scenes still register strongly, though there has been far more graphic violence in movies since 1975. Violence is expected in a revenge movie. What’s surprising is the bizarrely creative ways Ron improvises to torture information out of those who have helped wrong him. These include firing a pistol at close range to graze a man’s ear and using a car’s battery to shock him into talking. On the spur of the moment, he can convert a mop handle into a lethal weapon or use only his hands to beat a person to death. We never learn how Ron acquired such skills.
Framed was released shortly after Richard Nixon resigned in the face of the Watergate scandal. The country had heard about the degree of corruption in the administration, the cover-ups, the lies, and the audacity of power. The plot of the film thus registered strongly. Joe Don Baker plays a small-town Tennessee Woodward / Bernstein taking on corrupt power in his own way. Watching the film today, the theme of corrupt power may resonate just as strongly.
Framed was shot by director of photography Jack A. Marta on 35mm film with spherical lenses and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Imprint Films Blu-ray features an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The image is bright and mostly clear and sharp, but detail suffers in the more dimly lit scenes. such as in the bar. Complexions are well rendered. Director Phil Karlson revels in violence, coming in for close-up views of physical battery. Bloodshed is profuse. Prison scenes shot in the Tennessee State Prison have authenticity. Night scenes are often too dark, obscuring key elements. When Ron is shot at, back lighting silhouettes two cars blocking the road. The crash of a locomotive and a car is well staged, with several angles showing the crash to maximum advantage.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 Mono LPCM. English subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear and easily understood. Sound effects include bodies being pummeled in a brutal fist fight, gun shots, a train engine crashing into a car, a scuffle in the prison cafeteria, a guard dog attacking an intruder, a window being shattered, and cars moving at high speed. Patrick Williams’ score enhances the action with its driving energy. Conny Van Dyke sings three songs, Nearer My Love, To You, He’s My Lover and I’ll Never Make It Easy. In a hospital scene, there’s a distracting echo to the dialogue.
Bonus materials on the Region-Free Blu-ray release from Imprint Films include the following:
- Audio Commentary by Will Sloan
- Legacy of Brutality (22:12)
- Theatrical Trailer (:32)
Audio Commentary – Author/film writer Will Sloan says that 1975 was a great year for cinephiles. Other movies made around the same time include The Graduate, Bonnie & Clyde, Easy Rider and The Wild Bunch. Filmmakers were given a new freedom to explore difficult themes in challenging styles. The Production Code was on the way out. Youth culture had taken over pop culture. Joe was ground zero for the movement, a morally ambiguous story about a businessman who goes on a killing spree after his daughter runs off with a drug dealer. In Death Wish, Charles Bronson’s character shoots a random mugger after his daughter is raped. A trend in movies was that heroes would reclaim cities from corrupt officials. Framed reunited many of the personnel associated with the surprise hit Walking Tall (1973) but didn’t achieve the same level of success. Framed is unusual in that it features sympathetic corrupt individuals. The opening scene was filmed at the Starlite, one of Nashville’s oldest clubs. The Starlite closed permanently in 2014. Joe Don Baker, who died in 2025 at age 89, appeared in three James Bond films in two different roles. A cult fandom movement arose over Mitchell, another Baker film. Baker turned to television after several features didn’t do well. The scene of a train crashing into a car scene is discussed in detail, The stuntman jumped out of the car seconds before impact and you can see that in the film. Four cameras were used to capture the crash and safety precautions were in place. Director Phil Karlson studied painting, studied law (to please his father), and tried to make it as a song-and-dance man in vaudeville. He took a part-time job at Universal and was credited as assistant director on Great Expectations, Werewolf of London, and The Invisible Man Returns. On the film In the Navy, he suggested a few jokes to Lou Costello that got laughs. After a stint in the army, Karlson was invited by Costello to direct a low-budget Monogram film, A Wave, a Wac and a Marine. Karlson worked at Monogram, a “poverty row” studio, for the next decade. Many critics were put off by Karlson’s use of violence. The commentator reads excepts from a few reviews. As a young man, Karlson witnessed a mob killing, which may have influenced his world view. Framed “stands as one of the most riveting, the most exciting, the most troubling, the most memorable movies of a very exciting era for American film and a career highlight for all involved.” The final credits proudly state that Framed was shot in its entirety in Tennessee.
Legacy of Brutality – From a rooftop in Australia, writer and film critic Nick Pinkerton talks about Framed and its impact. It reunited “above the line” talent from 1973’s Walking Tall. Pinkerton describes political events at the time the film was released and refers to the film as “Nixon noir.” Watergate was in the news and Nixon’s resignation imminent. The film was shot in Tennessee, with some scenes in the state prison and others at the state capitol. Joe Don Baker studied at the Actors Studio in New York City. Some of his other film roles include Charley Varrick, Junior Bonner, Welcome Home, Soldier Boy and The Valachi Papers. Baker had a commanding screen presence. Writer Mort Briskin worked in TV. Director Phil Karlson was a teenager during the Capone years. His movies are violent and realistic. He directed The Scarface Mob, which became the basis for the TV series The Untouchables. Karlson retired at the top of his game. Pinkerton speaks about the awkward silliness of a scene in which a fat cop is knocked out by a roll of tar paper and discusses the film’s most elaborate scene, in which a stuntman was nearly incinerated.
There are some inconsistencies in the plot of Framed. If Sal has the pull to get Lewis out of prison in five years, why can’t he discover the corruption that has targeted him? After a vicious guard dog is killed, what’s the point of covering its body? Will that really fool anyone? As in many films, characters like to talk rather than get to the business of killing. This is probably to milk suspense, but it’s become a cliche. The acting is convincing except for Conny Van Dyke’s weak performance. Baker is well cast. His physical presence is impressive and he projects an aura of quiet, controlled menace. When he’s on screen, your eye goes immediately to him. Framed is an entertaining action picture but might be too intense for those who find graphic images and excessive blood unsettling.
- Dennis Seuling