The Worst Film Ever

Sick Product of a Sick System

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One might say that this movie is clichéd. Well, clichés have to start somewhere. Three men deal with prison in different ways. The one played by Chester Morris has some integrity and hopes for a better life. The other two are an enforcer and a rat. There is much give and take along the way, and eventually the classic prison break. Of course, at this time we know that right will prevail. There is also a little romance when Marlowe (Morris) escapes. There is also a commentary on what happens when we incarcerate men in places that are too crowded to hole them properly. Excellent actors in a thinly woven (and rather unbelievable) plot.

I suspect The Big House helped birth many of the conventions, staples and slang terms which have come to define prison films. Many of the classic elements are here but they manage to feel fresh instead of coming of as worn out clichés.The big impact this film had for me was that it made me a fan of two of its main stars, Robert Montgomery and Wallace Beery. The Big House made Beery a star, establishing his lovable lug persona and making him one of the biggest stars of the early 30's and one of the most unconventional stars in Hollywood history. Beery has a contradictory screen persona as seen here as his role of Butch; a thuggish brute one minute but as gentle as a puppy the next. However I feel Robert Montgomery is the one who steals the show, even If he doesn't have as much screen time as Beery and Chester Morris. Montgomery strikes me as the most interesting character in the film, as a privileged pretty boy convicted of manslaughter while drunk driving; he appears to be barely ready for adulthood, yet alone ready for serving 10 years in prison. Throughout the entire film you can tell he's completely out of his element with his trembling manner and naive wide eyed stare. Unlike the rest of the prisoners he is not a criminal in the common sense, displaying how it's a scary possibility for any regular person to end up in prison regards of their background or social standing.Being an early talkie, The Big House features many long static camera shots, muffled sound and no background music. However I feel these technical limitations are one of the film's greatest assets as they heighten the claustrophobia of the cells and other confined areas of the prison. If The Big House was made or remade later in the sound era with more advanced cinematography and clearer sound and a music score, it would not be as effective. The sound design itself is impressive, with the sound effects of whistles, prisoners marching or turning their plates in perfect unison in the mess hall showcase the routine nature of prison life and its mundanity. The film's screenwriter, Frances Marion interviewed actual prisoners and prison personal when writing The Big House, making the film an as authentic as possible look at the American prison system in 1930. Director George W. Hill apparently threatened to fire anyone caught acting and forbade the use of makeup in the film. The sets don't look like Hollywood sets and this is not a romanticized look at prison such as movies like Ladies They Talk About. At the beginning of the film the prison's warden (Lewis Stone), delivers a monologue about the general public wanting criminals locked behind bars but don't care about their treatment or rehabilitation once in prison. Here the prisoners have nothing to do all day in the overcrowded prison but grow animosity towards the guards and plot on how they are going to make their escape. Shortly after watching The Big House, I heard a discussion on the radio regarding the deteriorating conditions of prisons in the UK in 2014 and a caller phoned in and mirrored the exact points Lewis Stone made in The Big House; 80 years later and nothing has changed.

Big House, The (1930) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Robert Montgomery is sent to prison for manslaughter charges when he's put in the same cell as Machine Gun Butch (Wallace Berry). A breakout is eventually planned but a riot happens first. Berry rightfully so got an Oscar nomination but I found Montgomery a tad bit too dull in his role. The film is overly talky, which is the norm for its time but the action packed finale is very good. There are also one too many social messages said but this here was mostly due to the times that the film was released.

It was hard for me to believe that this film story was written by a female named Francis Marion who had studied prison life at San Quentin. Chester Morris plays the role as a con named John Morgan and is good friends with Butch Schmidt, (Wallace Berry) who is a hard nose prisoner with lots of power and connections among the other prison mates. Robert Montgomery, (Kent Marlowe) is a man who comes from a rich family, however, Kent is a weak minded guy or you could also call him a stool pigeon. There is a big prison break scene with all kinds of bullets flying all over the place and machine guns blasting away. Even the National Guard is call to action in one of the worst prison breaks I have ever seen. This is a great film with great actors and an outstanding Classic Film from 1930.