The Big House (1930)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

George W. Hill

Writers:

Joseph Farnham (additional dialogue)
Martin Flavin (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

14 June 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Timely! Tremendous! Thrilling! Drama of Love and a Jail-Break!

Plot:

A convict falls in love with his new cellmate's sister, only to become embroiled in a planned break-out which is certain to have lethal consequences.

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Manslaughter | Criminal | Drunk Driving

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Chester Morris	...	John Morgan
Wallace Beery	...	'Machine Gun' Butch Schmidt
Lewis Stone	...	Warden James Adams
Robert Montgomery	...	Kent Marlowe
Leila Hyams	...	Anne Marlowe
George F. Marion	...	Pop Riker
J.C. Nugent	...	Mr. Marlowe
Karl Dane	...	Olsen
DeWitt Jennings	...	Capt. Wallace
Matthew Betz	...	Gopher (as Mathew Betz)
Claire McDowell	...	Mrs. Marlowe
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Police Sgt. Donlin (as Robert Emmet O'Connor)
Tom Kennedy	...	Uncle Jed
Tom Wilson	...	Sandy, Guard
Eddie Foyer	...	Dopey

Runtime:

USA:87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Pacific Woolen & Blanket Works, Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

Wallace Beery's mess hall diatribe is parodied by Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), when he goes undercover into the prison and complains about the quality of the food.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
'Machine Gun' Butch Schmidt: Who, me?

Movie Connections:

Edited into Crime Does Not Pay Series No. 1 Entitled 'Buried Loot' (1935)

A great character study and view of the prison system

I saw "The Big House" last night as part of Turner Classic Movies' tribute to Frances Marion, the great female screenwriter. Marion became the first woman to win an Academy Award for screenwriting for her work on this film.

"The Big House" is a fascinating character study, showing how three very different men deal with being imprisoned. Butch (Wallace Beery) lords over all of the men with a knife and threats of violence. John Morgan (Chester Morris) is smart enough to befriend Butch and his crew, but keeps his own set of values. Newcomer Kent Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) is terrified of prison and eventually turns "rat" in hopes of being released.

The film also infers that the public at large is partly to blame for the discontent (and eventual unrest) within the prison: at one moment, the head warden says something to the effect of the public wanting to put criminals in prison, but not wanting to spend the money to build more prisons to accommodate them. This is issue is still debated to this day.

I also found the portrayal of the lone female character, Anne Marlowe (Kent's sister, played by Leila Hyams), very refreshing and unexpected. Instead of the crying, simpering type we might expect in a prison movie, we are given a smart and compassionate woman who owns her own business.

All of the actors gave excellent, realistic performances and Frances Marion's screenplay was well-deserving of the accolades it received. The insight and sensitivity that she used to write about these characters and this place surpasses most of the scripts written by men on the same subject.