The Big House (1930)

Director:

George W. Hill

Writers:

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

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
Roscoe Ates	...	Putnam (as Rosco Ates)
Fletcher Norton	...	Oliver
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edgar Dearing	...	Inmate (uncredited)
Ethan Laidlaw	...	Trustee (uncredited)
Eddie Lambert	...	Inmate (uncredited)
George Magrill	...	Convict in Yard (uncredited)
Chris-Pin Martin	...	Inmate (uncredited)
Louis Natheaux	...	Morgan's Lawyer (uncredited)
Charles O'Malley	...	Inmate (uncredited)
Adolph Seidel	...	Prison Barber (uncredited)
Michael Vavitch	...	Inmate (uncredited)
Harry Wilson	...	Inmate #46375 (uncredited)

Directed by
George W. Hill		(as George Hill)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Joseph Farnham		additional dialogue (as Joe Farnham)
Martin Flavin		additional dialogue
Frances Marion		dialogue
Frances Marion		story
Lennox Robinson		uncredited

Produced by
Irving Thalberg	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Harold Wenstrom

Film Editing by
Blanche Sewell

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harry Sharrock	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Costume and Wardrobe Department
David Cox	....	wardrobe

Production Companies

• Cosmopolitan Productions (for)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1930) (USA) (theatrical) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (USA) (DVD)

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 in 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)

Crashing Out

Even after 77 years, The Big House is still the grand daddy of all prison films. Though films like Shawshank Redemption and a personal favorite of mine, Brubaker, with no Code restrictions can be a lot more graphic, still The Big House will shock as well as entertain.

Wallace Beery got a Best Actor nomination for being hardened killer Butch Schmidt who's a lifer in the state penitentiary. He and cell mate Chester Morris have a new man in their little abode in the person of a young Robert Montgomery.

Montgomery's only a kid, but he's done a man size crime of manslaughter in a vehicular homicide where he was no doubt good and sloshed on prohibition rotgut. Montgomery is a weakling in a place where that's not a good thing.

All the clichés about prison films really do start here, culminating in the final crash-out where a whole lot of people get themselves killed. It's a scene well staged, very similar to the breakout in Brute Force.

As the story progresses you'll see plot elements from Brute Force and from Warner Brothers Each Dawn I Die. The cast does a marvelous job and that also includes Lewis Stone as a Judge Hardy like warden.

If you like prison films, this one's the grand daddy of them all.