''The Big House'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

prison drama film directed by George Hill, released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

, and starring Chester Morris,

Wallace Beery Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' ( ...

, Lewis Stone and Robert Montgomery. The story and dialogue were written by

Frances Marion Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens, November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...

, who won the

Academy Award for Best Writing Achievement The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, music ...

. As one of the first prison movies, it inspired many others of this genre.

Background

The story was inspired by a spate of prison riots in 1929 and resulting federal investigation. In response, George Hill wrote a twenty-seven page story treatment called "The Reign of Terror: A Story of Crime and Punishment".

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

gave the go ahead for the screenplay and assigned Frances Marion to work with George Hill.

Lon Chaney Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...

was originally chosen for the role of Butch, a violent career criminal who rules the prison cellblock, but the cancer from which he was to die in August 1930 had already advanced too far and the role went to Wallace Beery. The movie launched Beery's sound career to new heights; a top supporting actor and frequent leading man in silents, he had been dropped by his previous studio Paramount when sound came in even though he recorded a successful voice test. After ''The Big House'' became a hit and his performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, he became the world's highest-paid actor within two years. The story and dialogue were written by

, with additional dialogue by

Joe Farnham Joseph White Farnham (December 2, 1884 – June 2, 1931) was an American playwright, film writer, and film editor of the silent movie era in the 1920s. He was also a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Biog ...

and Martin Flavin. Marion won the

Douglas Shearer Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a Canadian American pioneering sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. The elder brother of ac ...

also won the first Academy Award for Sound. The film was nominated for

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

. ''The Big House'' was one of the first

prison film A prison film is a film genre concerned with prison life and often prison escape. These films range from acclaimed dramas examining the nature of prisons, such as ''Cool Hand Luke'', '' Midnight Express'', '' Brubaker'', '' Escape from Alcatraz'', ...

s ever made and was tremendously influential on the genre.

Plot

Kent ( Robert Montgomery), a drunk driver who carelessly kills a man, is sentenced to ten years for manslaughter. In an overcrowded prison designed for 1800 and actually holding 3000, he is placed in a cell with Butch (

) and Morgan ( Chester Morris), the two leaders of the inmates. Butch is alternately menacing and friendly, while Morgan tries to help out the frightened, inexperienced youngster, but Kent rebuffs his overtures. When Butch is ordered into solitary confinement for sparking a protest over the prison food, he passes along his knife before being searched. It ends up in Kent's hands. Meanwhile, Morgan is notified that he is to be paroled. Prior to a search of their cell, Kent hides the knife in Morgan's bed. When it is found, Morgan's parole is canceled, and he is put in solitary as well. He vows to make Kent pay for what he has done. When Morgan is let out of solitary, he escapes by switching places with a corpse on the way to the morgue. He makes his way to the bookstore run by Kent's beautiful sister, Anne (

Leila Hyams Leila Hyams (May 1, 1905 – December 4, 1977) was an American film and stage actress, model, and vaudevillian, who came from a show business family. Her relatively short film career began in 1924 during the era of silent films and ended in 19 ...

). She, however, recognizes him. She manages to get his gun and starts to call the police, but then changes her mind and gives him back his pistol. Morgan (who has been attracted to Anne since he saw Kent's photograph of her) gets a job and becomes better acquainted with Anne and her family. They all like him, especially Anne. However, he is caught and sent back to prison. When Butch tells Morgan of his plan for a jailbreak on Thanksgiving, Morgan tells him that he is going straight. In return for a promise of freedom, Kent informs the warden ( Lewis Stone) of the attempt, though he is not privy to the details. Despite the warning, the inmates succeed in taking over the prison, capturing many of the guards, though they are unable to force their way out. Thwarted, Butch threatens to shoot the guards one by one unless they are allowed to escape. When the warden stands firm, Butch shoots the warden's right-hand man in cold blood, then tosses the dying man out for all to see. Army tanks are called to break down the entrance. Morgan grabs a pistol from the prisoner assigned to watch the guards. He finds Kent cowering with the guard but spares him. Kent panics and flees before Morgan locks the guards in to save their lives. When Kent tries to open the front doors, he is killed in the crossfire. Butch is told that Morgan was the "stoolie" who tipped off the warden and learns he has put the guards out of danger. He sets out to kill his former friend. In the ensuing gunfight, both are wounded, Butch fatally. Before he dies, he learns that Kent was actually the informer, and he and Morgan reconcile. For his efforts, Morgan is given a full pardon. When he exits the prison, Anne rushes to embrace him.

Foreign-language versions

In the early days of sound films, it was common for Hollywood studios to produce "

Foreign Language Version A multiple-language version film, often abbreviated to MLV, is a film, especially from the early talkie era, produced in several different languages for international markets. To offset the marketing restrictions of making sound films in only one ...

s" of their films using the same sets, costumes and so on. While many of these versions no longer exist, the French, Spanish and German-language versions of ''The Big House'' survive, which are entitled ''Révolte dans la prison'', ''El presidio'' and '' Menschen hinter Gittern''. The French and Spanish versions are available with the original in a triple feature set from the Warner Archives.

Cast

* Chester Morris as Morgan *

as Butch * Lewis Stone as Warden * Robert Montgomery as Kent *

as Anne * George F. Marion as Pop * J. C. Nugent as Mr. Marlowe * Karl Dane as Olsen *

DeWitt Jennings DeWitt Clarke Jennings (June 21, 1871 – March 1, 1937) was an American film and stage actor. He appeared in 17 Broadway plays between 1906 and 1920, and in more than 150 films between 1915 and 1937. Biography He was born in Cameron, Misso ...

as Wallace * Mathew Betz as Gopher *

Claire McDowell Claire McDowell ( MacDowell; November 2, 1877 – October 23, 1966) was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 350 films between 1908 and 1945. Early years Claire MacDowell was born in New York City on November 2, 1877, the ...

as Mrs. Marlowe * Robert Emmet O'Connor as Donlin * Tom Kennedy as Uncle Jed * Tom Wilson as Sandy * Eddie Foyer as Dopey * Rosco Ates as Putnam * Fletcher Norton as Oliver :;Uncredited (in order of appearance) *

Louis Natheaux Louis Natheaux (born ''Louis F. Natho''; December 10, 1894 – August 23, 1942) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films between 1919 and 1942. Born in Danville, Illinois, Natheaux performed in vaudeville and in a ...

......Morgan's lawyer * George Magrill......Convict in yard * Angelo Rossitto......Convict *

Michael Vavitch Mikhail Vavich (russian: Михаил Иванович Вавич) was a Russian actor, operetta and singer. Biography Mikhail first performed in 1905 on stage at St. Petersburg in a private operetta of Petr Tumpakov. He received recognition in ...

......Convict * Harry Wilson......Convict number #46375 *

Ethan Laidlaw Ethan Allen Laidlaw (November 25, 1899 – May 25, 1963) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 350 films and made more than 500 appearances on television, mainly uncredited in Westerns, between 1923 and 1962. Laidlaw was bor ...

......Trustee * Chris-Pin Martin......Convict *

Edgar Dearing Edgar Dearing (May 4, 1893 – August 17, 1974) was an American actor who became heavily type cast as a motorcycle cop in Hollywood films. Biography Born in 1893, Dearing started in silent comedy shorts for Hal Roach, including several with La ...

......Convict *

Herbert Prior Herbert Prior (2 July 1867 – 3 October 1954) was an English silent film actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1908 and 1934. He was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, and died in Los Angeles, California. Prior was married to actress ...

......Prison doctor

Reception

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described it as "a film in which the direction, the photography, the microphone work and the magnificent acting take precedence over the negligible story." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it a "virile, realistic melodrama".

John Mosher John Mosher (1928–1998) was an American jazz bassist, classical bassist and composer who worked, recorded and toured with a wide range of primarily West Coast artists from the 1950s through the mid-1990s. Early years A native of Sioux City, I ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' wrote, "So expert are many of the scenes, so effective the photography, so direct and spare the dialogue, that certain obvious, silly, and dull moments may almost be overlooked." Wallace Beery was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in ''The Big House'', cementing his career in sound films, and won the following year for '' The Champ'' (1931). According to MGM records ''The Big House'' took in approximately $1,279,000 in theater rentals from the United States and Canada, an additional $436,000 from foreign rentals, and earned a profit of $462,000.

Evaluation in film guides

'' Steven H. Scheuer's TV Movie Almanac & Ratings 1958 & 1959'' gave ''The Big House'' a "Good" rating of 3 stars (out of 4), summarizing its plot as " sperate convicts try a prison break", with the evaluation, " is early example of prison melodrama is still entertaining". ''

Leonard Maltin's TV Movies & Video Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally call ...

'' (1989 edition) also put the rating at 3 (out of 4 stars), describing it as " e original prison drama" and indicating that "this set the pattern for all later copies; it's still good, hard-bitten stuff with one of Beery's best tough-guy roles". In the third edition (2015) of his ''Classic Movie Guide'', Maltin also mentioned the surviving French and Spanish-language versions and added that "Charles Boyer stars in the former". British references had some positive words for the film, with the 1984 edition of '' David Shipman's The Good Film and Video Guide'' giving 1 star out of 4 ("Recommended with reservations"), noting that it is " nuntypical MGM film, about prison life which is now laughably conventional but was then very influential". Shipman describes Wallace Beery and Chester Morris as "two old lags" and Robert Montgomery as "the wealthy guy too weak for the system".

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

in the 5th edition (1985) of his ''Film and Video Guide'', rated it 2 stars out of 4 and described it as an " chetypal prison melodrama and a significant advance in form for early talkies."

References

External links

* * * * *
''The Big House''
at ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

'' (heavily cut and revised version of 1987 write-up originally published in '' The Motion Picture Guide'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Big House, The 1930 films 1930 crime drama films 1930s prison films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American prison drama films Films directed by George Hill Films produced by Irving Thalberg Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films American multilingual films Films with screenplays by Frances Marion 1930 multilingual films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films