Very well executed

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Copyright 17 February 1940 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 3 March 1940. U.S. release: 15 July 1940. Australian release: 18 April 1940 (sic). 77 minutes. Censored to 58 minutes in Australia.U.K. and Australian release title: YEARS WITHOUT DAYS.SYNOPSIS: Mobster Tommy Gordon is not worried about being sentenced to Sing Sing because he believes his political pals will get him a fast parole. He tells his girlfriend, Kay, not to worry. He makes no effort to reform in prison, and after causing a near-riot is given three months in solitary confinement by Warden Long, a dedicated prison reformer. After the ninety days in solitary, Tommy concedes that his friends have deserted him, and he joins a group of convicts planning to escape. NOTES: A re-make of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932). John Garfield was extremely popular in Australia when this film was released, but close to 20 minutes of censor cuts put paid to any hopes that Warner Bros entertained for big money at Oz ticket windows. Instead the movie had to be released at flat rates as a "B"-grade support. COMMENT: It's hard to believe that Anatole Litvak had anything to do with this limp re-make, let alone direct it. Great cast too. But despite forceful playing by the charismatic Garfield and personable Sheridan, the characters never really come across. As a result, the story has little impact. Weak support playing by Pat O'Brien (especially) and Jerome Cowan doesn't help. True, part of the problem lies in the script. O'Brien's role is not built up sufficiently to make him a sympathetic figure. He's always just a minor character. This lack of audience empathy with Warden Long robs the climax of much of its drama. Of the big support cast, only Burgess Meredith really makes an impression, though Guinn Williams has some effective moments. Technical credits are smooth, but undistinguished. Like the script, the film editing tends to be flaccid, with scenes held too long and then faded out in a somewhat old-fashioned way that militates against the realism so vital to this story. Production values do not impress half as much as Twenty Thousand Years

Directed by Anatole Litvak, John Garfield plays Tommy Gordon, a small time hood who is working his way to the top against the wishes of his girlfriend Kay Manners, played by Ann Sheridan. When he forgets it's his bad luck night (Saturday) and pulls a job anyway, naturally he gets caught.Since Gordon's lawyer (Jerome Cowan) has always been able to get him off easily in the past, he's a pretty cocky guy. However, this time he gets sent to Sing Sing, the "castle", and it takes some isolation treatment by the warden, played by Pat O'Brien, to get him to conform enough to be released into the prison population.Kay visits him in prison and says she's working with his lawyer to get him out. Gordon doesn't trust his lawyer, thinking he's making a play for Kay, and tells her to stay away from him. Gordon soon befriends a couple of cons played by Burgess Meredith, the smart guy, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, a dumb lug and they all hatch a plan to escape.On the night of the escape, Gordon realizes it's Saturday night and refuses to leave his cell. Good thing too because, the warden was tipped off and, Meredith is killed in the attempt, while Williams is sentenced to die because a guard was killed. When the warden realizes that Gordon didn't try to escape, he begins to trust him.Later, Gordon is summoned by the warden and told that Kay has been in an auto accident and isn't expected to live. If Gordon will promise to come back, the warden will let him go to see her. He promises to return even if it means the chair. As he's leaving the warden's office, he notices that it's Saturday but goes on anyway.On his way to see Kay, Gordon picks up a tail from a policeman who can't believe what he's seeing. When Gordon gets to the bedridden Kay, he learns that his lawyer was indeed moving in on her and was the cause of her injuries. He takes her gun and starts to leave to settle the matter when Kay convinces him not to and to give her the gun. About that time, the lawyer shows up and the two men start fighting. When the lawyer appears to get the upper hand, Kay shoots him. The policemen hears the shot and tries to force Kay's apartment door. Gordon flees with the gun and the lawyers money.Gordon hooks up with his old gang and arranges for safe passage out of town on a boat. However, upon reading the headlines and seeing that the warden will lose his position for letting him go, he decides to return. Kay insists she shot the lawyer but nobody believes her and Gordon is sentenced to die.The ending of the film is very good, with Williams having to face his fate before Garfield, John Litel as the prison chaplain, and a couple of more scenes with Sheridan and O'Brien as Gordon faces his fate.FYI, noted character actor Henry O'Neill plays a district attorney in the film.

Cocky gangster (Garfield) goes to prison where he gradually reforms until given a break by the prison warden (O'Brien). Then problems ensue.Typically gritty Warner Bros. fare from the pre-war era. Garfield shows he's in the same gangster class as Cagney and Robinson. Watch him spit out dialog faster than a machine gun burst while doing a tough-guy routine. And who better to double-cross him than that slippery lounge lizard Jerome Cowan who could machine gun his own dialog as a reporter in dozens of period films.But the real scene stealer is scrawny, athletic Burgess Meredith, a brainy con who outwits the prison head-doctor (Grant Mitchell) in the movie's best scene. He may be the least-likely looking con I've seen; still, he and Garfield make a dynamic leadership team (as long as it's not Saturday!). On the other hand, goofy Big Boy Williams strikes me as a matter of taste.It's a compelling, if not original, plot that redeems Garfield without whitewashing him. Still, I'm not sure what his actual capital crime is when they lead him away, especially when the all-powerful Production Code insisted that justice be served on this side of the pearly gates. Nonetheless, his scenes with the warden (O'Brien) are nicely shaded gems of growing respect, while a lovely Sheridan is affecting as the luckless girlfriend. As this gutsy little programmer shows, star-studded MGM may have had the gloss, but plebeian Warner's had the grit.

Castle on the Hudson (1941)** 1/2 (out of 4) Pretty much a scene-by-scene remake of the 1932 drama 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING has gangster Tommy Gordon (John Garfield) being sentenced to prison but he's not worried because he thinks his "connections" will get him out. Soon Tommy realizes that those on the outside want him to remain in prison so he thinks about escaping but the Warden (Pat O'Brien) tries to talk some sense into him. Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis were the stars of the original film, which is slightly better than this one thanks in large part to see the two legends working together. If you've seen that version then nothing here is going to come as a shock to you because I wouldn't be surprised if Warner just dusted off the previous screenplay and used it again, just changing names this time. That original film wasn't a classic so if you haven't seen it then you'll probably be caught up in the story plus we get Garfield turning in another winning performance. His character was too large of an ego and comes off as a major jerk but Garfield could always play these characters and in the end make you care about them. That's what pretty much happens here because after Tommy takes his beatings he finally comes to except prison life and how it actually is. Garfield is so believable in the part that you can't help but want to see him succeed in what he's doing no matter what he was convicted of. O'Brien plays his character countless times before in a number of Warner pictures. That heart of gold who takes in the bad and makes them see how good they could be. O'Brien and Garfield work extremely well together and they're certainly the main reason to check this film out. Ann Sheridan plays the girlfriend and isn't too bad in the part but the character is so poorly written that she becomes quite annoying due to how stupid she is. Burgess Meredith plays a fast-talking convict who tries to talk Garfield into escaping and Guinn Williams is the lovable lug head. Warner made a ton of gangster and prison pics and while this here isn't nearly the best, there are at least enough good moments to make it worth viewing but I'd still catch the original first.