''Men Behind Bars'' (German: ''Menschen hinter Gittern'') is a 1931 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 ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Pál Fejös Pál Fejős (27 January 1897 – 23 April 1963), known professionally as Paul Fejos, was a Hungarian-American director of feature films and documentaries who worked in a number of countries including the United States. He also studied medicine i ...

and starring

Heinrich George Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz (9 October 1893 – 25 September 1946), better known as Heinrich George (), was a German stage and film actor. Career Weimar Republic George is noted for having spooked the young Bertolt Brecht in his first ...

Gustav Diessl Gustav Diessl (30 December 1899 – 20 March 1948) was an Austrian artist, and film and stage actor. Biography Diessl was born Gustav Karl Balthasar Diessl in Vienna. In 1916, he was an extra on different stages in Vienna but was soon recruite ...

and

Egon von Jordan Egon von Jordan (19 March 1902 – 27 December 1978) was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1974. Selected filmography * '' The Ghost of Morton's Castle'' (1922) * ''Young Medardus'' (1923) * ''Lace'' ...

. It is the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...

version of

MGM 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 ...

's '' The Big House''. In the early years of

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

before

dubbing Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production so ...

became widespread, it was common to make films in multiple languages. It premiered in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

on June 24, 1931.

Synopsis

The convicts in an overcrowded American

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

plot to rise up and stage a massive

jailbreak A prison escape (referred as a bust out, breakout, jailbreak, or prison break) is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture the ...

Cast

as Butch *

as Morris *

as Kent Marlow *

Anton Pointner Anton Pointner (8 December 1894 in Salzburg – 8 September 1949 in Hintersee) was an Austrian stage and film actor. Pointner's career began on the stages of Austria and performed in both silent and sound films in his native Austria, as well ...

as Supervisor Wallace *

Dita Parlo Dita Parlo (born Grethe Gerda Kornstädt or Gerda Olga Justine Kornstädt; 4 September 1908 – 12 December 1971) was a German film actress. Early life and career Dita Parlo was born on 4 September 1908 in Stettin, Pomerania, then in the ...

as Annie Marlow * Paul Morgan as Putnam *

Herman Bing Herman Bing (March 30, 1889 – January 9, 1947) was a German-American character actor. He acted in more than 120 films and many of his parts were uncredited. Biography Bing was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was son of the opera ...

as lawyer *

Peter Erkelenz Peter Erkelenz (12 September 1897 – April 1966) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' Men Behind Bars'' (1931) * ''The Sea Ghost'' (1931) * ''Sacred Waters'' (1932) * '' Dream of the Rhine'' (1933) * '' The Star of Valencia'' (1933 ...

as Der Gefängnisdirektor *

Karl Etlinger Karl Etlinger (16 October 1879 – 8 May 1946) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1946. Selected filmography * '' The Eternal Curse'' (1921) * '' The Poisoned Stream'' (1921) * ''The Films of Princ ...

as Gefängniswärter * Adolf E. Licho as Annie's father *

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (5 May 1898 – 19 November 1958) was a German film actor. Career in Germany Twardowski was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin in Poland). He made his first film appearance in the 1920 Robert Wiene-directed ho ...

as Oliver

References

External links

* 1931 drama films American drama films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films directed by Paul Fejos American multilingual films American black-and-white films 1931 multilingual films 1930s American films {{1930s-drama-film-stub