Buried Alive (1939)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Victor Halperin

Writers:

William A. Ullman Jr. (story)
George Bricker (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 November 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Love finds its way... behind the gates of prison!

Plot:

A prison trustee rescues a despondent executioner from a bar-room brawl, and is blamed for the fight by a tabloid reporter who actually started it, and loses parole, becomes embittered, and gets blamed for murder of guard.

Plot Keywords:

Trustee | Tabloid Reporter | Chauffeur | Electric Chair | Parole Board

Cast

Beverly Roberts	...	Joan Wright
Robert Wilcox	...	Johnny Martin
Paul McVey	...	Jim Henderson
Ted Osborne	...	Ira Hanes (as Ted Osborn)
George Pembroke	...	Ernie Matthews (as Geo. Pembroke)
Alden 'Stephen' Chase	...	Dr. Robert Lee (as Alden Chase)
George Lynn	...	Gus Barth (as Peter Lynn)
Wheeler Oakman	...	Manning
Norman Budd	...	The Kid
Ben Alexander	...	Riley
Boyd Irwin	...	Rutledge
Edward Earle	...	Charlie Blake
Dave O'Brien	...	Carson
Robert McKenzie	...	Al Garrity (as Bob McKenzie)
Don Rowan	...	Big Billy

Runtime:

62 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Sigmund Neufeld Productions

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Actor/stuntman Dave O'Brien plays the part of a reporter without his signature hairpiece, but he is wearing it when he doubles Robert Wilcox in the bar brawl scene. Even with his hairpiece on, it is obviously O'Brien.

Quotes:

Joan Wright: Well, your philosophy's slightly cock-eyed, Johnny, but I like the way you carry your chin.
Johnny Martin: My chin?
[She pantomines a punch at his chin]
Johnny Martin: Oh, yeah, I get it. You mean I'm always leading with it, Joanie. I'm sorry, I meant Miss Joan. Always talkin' out of turn - that's me sure!

Minor late-show material

With its limited settings, slow pacing, and small cast, this "B" movie could almost be staged as a radio drama. It offers little in the way of suspense or romance and has no comic relief but there may be some academic interest in its Roosevelt-era attitudes toward prisons, capital punishment, and the power of the press.

Robert Wilcox, who always deserved better and who has one of the greatest heads of hair in the history of the movies, does what he can as the inmate who suffers a contrived and implausible string of bad luck. His best part came in the following year, however, when he played an inmate who endures a memorable flogging in "Island of Doomed Men."