Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

STATE PENITENTIARY – 1950 This one is a low-budget cheapie from the Columbia Pictures B unit. The film stars Warner Baxter.Baxter plays an aircraft builder who is sent up river for embezzling $400,000 from his own company. His 5 year bit is to be spent in the Nevada State Pen. Baxter claims he innocent of the crime and was set up by someone.Of course "everyone' sent up tells the same story and neither the warden, Leo Carey or his cell-mates, Richard Benedict and Brett King believe him. Every couple of weeks he is paid a visit by Police Detective, Onslow Stevens. Stevens tells him to cough up the cash and get out of jail earlier. Stevens does not believe Baxter's innocence tale either.The only thing that keeps Baxter sane, is the once a month, visit from his wife, Karin Booth. Booth believes in Baxter and has an idea on who the real crook is. She is sure that Baxter's former partner, Robert Shayne is the real culprit, and she intends to prove it.Without telling husband Baxter about her suspicions, Booth flies to Florida and looks up Shayne. The two are soon an item and are featured in the local newspapers. Detective Stevens take particular pleasure in showing Baxter these articles. "Tell us where you hid the money. You'll get time off and can go stop your wife." Baxter is forced by several of the other inmates, Benedict, King and John Hart to help in a prison break. The attempt fails and everyone but Baxter is tossed in solitary. This does not sit well with all the other inmates. They smell a rat and give Baxter a right curb-stomping. Baxter survives but needs 3 weeks in the hospital to recover. While recovering, Baxter hears from Detective Stevens that Booth plans on divorcing him in order to marry Shayne. Now Baxter is really upset. He has also decided that Shayne must have stolen the company funds.When released from the hospital, Baxter pulls the same escape plan as the others had tried. He is however successful in his bid for the outside. He spends several weeks hitching rides and riding the rails to get to Florida. He is less than a mile from his goal when Detective Stevens puts the grab on him. Stevens has been waiting for Baxter to show. "Back to Nevada you go!" Baxter begs Stevens to let him confront Shayne. "I'm sure you will find the money there." Stevens goes along with the idea and they drive over to Shayne's house. As it so happens, Baxter's wife, Karin Booth, has picked the same time to confront Shayne about the cash. She has only been swapping spit and doing some couch wrestling with Shayne in order to find the cash. The swine Shayne had the money buried in his greenhouse.Baxter and Stevens pull up just as Booth and Stevens are struggling over a revolver. Doors are kicked and shots exchanged with Shayne receiving some extra ventilation. The money is returned, Baxter gets out of jail and is soon in Booth's arms again.This is not a world-beater by any means. It is slow in bits and relies on the narrator (Carey) to keep the pace going. The film was the last role for longtime Hollywood actor, Warner Baxter. Baxter was the highest paid male film actor at one (1936) time, He is however best know as the lead in the Crime Doctor series of B-films.The director is the prolific Lew Landers. In 1942 alone, Landers helmed 12 films. His noir include, POWER OF THE WHISTLER, CRIME INC, ARSON SQUAD, THE MASK OF DIIJON, INNER SANCTUM, REVENUE AGENT, THE CRUEL TOWER and MAN IN THE DARK.The story is by Henry Edward Helseth. Helseth wrote the stories for ONE WAY TICKET, OUTSIDE THE WALL and CRY OF THE CITY (novel).The d of p was longtime serial cinematographer, Ira H Morgan. Morgan also worked on, WHEN STRANGERS MARRY and REVENUE AGENT.

State Penitentiary (1950) ** (out of 4) Aircraft manufacturer Rodger Manners (Warner Baxter) is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to prison but when he learns that his wife is seeking a divorce and marrying a man he knows, he decides to break free and prove that he was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. STATE PENITENTIARY comes from producer Sam Katzman so that there should pretty much tell you what to expect. This low-budget movie has pretty much been forgotten over the years except to fans of Baxter because this here would sadly be his final film. It's always fun seeing Baxter at work but you can tell that he doesn't appear to be himself here. It seems pretty clear throughout the picture that he's walking very slowly and it just appears as if he hasn't any energy. This also effects his performance as the character just seems like it would have been better served with someone a tad bit younger and a bit more energetic. The supporting cast includes Onslow Stevens, Karin Booth and Robert Shayne but no one is really given much to work with. As with many films from this period, this one here features non-stop narration that pretty much tells us everything that's happening on the screen. The Manners character might be upset about something so we see him in his cell, mad of course, and then we have the narrator explaining to us that he's made. The film was obviously made on a very low-budget and this hurts things because we don't even get the escape sequence until the 60-minute mark, which isn't good considering the picture lasts just five-minutes more. The climax of the film happens way too fast to say the least. A note at the start of the picture tells us that the film was shot at a real prison, which I don't doubt but for some reason there's still a lot of stock footage used. STATE PENITERNIARY isn't a horrible movie but there's just not any energy, drama or tension to keep the viewer fully entertained.

Penitentiary starts with the narrator (Cleary) introducing the prison, and several of its most famous residents. It starts out sounding like a documentary, but we quickly see Roger Manners (Warner Baxter) entering the jail, having been convicted of some financial crime. He has the usual set of run-ins with other prisoners, who are testing him and giving him the run-around. Manners keeps his cool, and is kind of a lone wolf. To make things worse, his wife (Karin Booth) starts seeing "Stan" (Robert Shayne), who looks JUST like Manners, which is a little odd. They could be twins. Word about his wife gets back to Manners, and the other guys give him the business. Then he gets caught up in the various plans of the other prisoners, and things get all mixed up. Most of the story moves pretty slow... but it's not bad. Things pick up big-time in the last fifteen or twenty minutes. The story is pretty plain & simple, but there are worse ways to spend sixty six minutes... a Columbia shortie.Story by Henry Helseth, who also wrote two other novels which were made into films; "Chair for Martin Rome" was made into Cry of the City, and "Un aller simple" became One Way Ticket. Directed by Lew Landers, who had acted in a couple of silents before directing films and a whole SLEW of TV series.

Warner Baxter gives a typically graceful performance in this, his last movie. The movie itself is no great shakes: pretty much the standard men in prison movie for a couple of decades. The efforts are enlivened by some typically fine cinematography by Ira Morgan (including some setting shots allegedly photographed at real prisons) and the issue of whether Baxter -- who uses his age and weariness to the performance's advantage -- is actually guilty of embezzling $400,000.Baxter came from a show business family and had appeared in his first movie before World War One. An early Academy Award and canny choices had kept him a moderately successful minor star for twenty years. Most of the previous five years had been spent in the Crime Doctor series, but Columbia was shutting down its B series. It's good to see him go out in a real acting assignment.