Numbered Men

... but fortunately, their output quality trended dramatically up starting the following year.

Overall it's just a jaw dropping novelty. A group of convicts, by virtue of their good conduct, get to work out in the open air on the road-building crew. There don't seem to be any guards - These guys are all on the honor system! And when they get hungry or thirsty they show up at Mother Miller's farm for some cookies and milk! They steal and molest nothing, not even the good-looking girl Mother Miller has hired to assist her, in spite of many of them being without female companionship for, possibly, years. Honestly! These guys are not in prison for dropping out of Sunday school!

And when one of the "bad" convicts escapes from the prison itself and threatens the existence of the honor system, erudite convict Bertie Gray (Conrad Nagel) suggests that the convicts on the road crew help in recapturing him as a means of preserving said honor system. Not only does the warden heartily agree, he passes out rifles to them! Where is a crusading journalist when you need one?

I can only assume director Mervyn LeRoy had directed so many Alice White films that, by this time, nothing seemed preposterous to him.

I'll cut this some slack since Warner Brothers had planned to make this a musical (???) - thus the presence of Bernice Claire in the cast. They had to change their plans when the moviegoing public began to mutiny against the glut of poor to mediocre movie musicals being produced.

I will say that the acting is pretty good, and it isn't overly talkie as so many early talkies were. But that plot - Yikes!

silly, very hammy, kind of annoying prison flick has some campy lines here and there; not a Warners pic, therefore not striving for realism. the leading lady is cute.

NUMBERED MEN (First National Pictures, 1930), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, is an early sound prison melodrama virtually forgotten by better ones that were to come, and doesn't star legendary tough guys as James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson or George Raft to attract any avid film buff's attention. While NUMBERED MEN was released shortly before any of these three actors made their mark on the motion picture screen, this was indeed a dress rehearsal for director LeRoy, whose prison drama, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932) featuring Paul Muni, has become legendary during the course of the years. NUMBERED MEN, however, stars some lesser known names by today's standards. Conrad Nagel heads the cast with his name under the title before listed second under Bernice Claire's during the cast listings and their roles, followed by Raymond Hackett and others. Adapted from a stage play, "Jailbreak" by Dwight Taylor, NUMBERED MEN, probably inspired by the current trend of Broadway's "The Last Mile" (1929) and MGM's THE BIG HOUSE (1930), follows that pattern with a slight twist to it.

Following its opening title which reads: "In God's glorious sunshine, everyone and everything bears a name. It is man's birthright - yet behind pitiless walls built with bricks of shame, there exist humans - with names long forgotten - now known by numbers only," the camera takes its full view of Stoneyhurst State Penitentiary before leading to the visitor's room and introduction to various convicts: Bud Leonard (Raymond Hackett), Number 31857, is serving ten years on charges of counterfeiting. He is loved by Mary Dane (Bernice Claire), "a swell kid with red hair," who's willing to wait for him. Bud shares a cell with Bertie Gray (Conrad Nagel), Number 26521, a pipe smoker serving time on charges other than counterfeiting, with six more months to go on his term. Other prisoners include "Happy" Howard (George Cooper), a harmonica player; "Baby Face" Pollack (Ivan Linow), Number 41226, who gets calmed by Bertie when going stir crazy; Jimmy Martin (Frederic Howard), Number 51034; and King Callahan (Ralph Ince), Number 33410, a crook who arranges for a jail break. Warden Lansing (William Holden) awards Bertie and Bud the honor system by offering them temporary privileges working a road camp, becoming employees of the state. Their work takes them near a farm run by the kindly Mrs. Miller (Blanche Frederici), who provides trustees with food and donuts. To get her chance to see and be near Bud, Mary gets a job working for Mrs. Miller. Trouble lurks when gangster, Lou Rinaldo (Maurice Black), who framed Bud on counterfeit charge in the first place, arrives to force his intentions on Mary.

Playing like a "B" movie, which it was, this 64 minutes programmer might prove disappointing for anyone expecting a solid prison melodrama. While the early portions show convicts having recreation time playing cards and listening to the radio, the warden does put enough trust in some to put them to work outside the prison watched by guards with no guns to keep them in their place. One scene worthy of mention is one where Bertie and Jimmy talk about Lou Rinaldo, whose face is superimposed on the screen between these two men. Anyone familiar with Bernice Claire, she's an singer with an operatic voice who specialized in musicals. Starring in some early screen adaptations as NO, NO NANETTE (1929) and SONG OF THE FLAME (1930), and best known for her duets with Alexander Gray in three early talkies, NUMBERED MEN was her only non-singing assignment. NUMBERED MEN came at a time when her movie career was coming to a close. Conrad Nagel, a popular leading man for MGM with a very distinctive voice, makes a go as a convict, though not so convincing as a tough guy. Tully Marshall, a familiar face in many motion pictures dating back to the silent screen, provides some humor as Lamuel Barnes, Mrs. Miller's neighboring farmer who raises chickens, and puts his distrust on the cons working so close to his area. As much as director LeRoy keeps the pace going, with plot more outside the prison rather than in, one wishes more time spent on prison breaks, cell fights and shooting by the guards. One of those is actually used, but on a limited scale. Take note that the actor, William Holden, is not the same Academy Award winning Holden of STALAG 17 (Paramount, 1953) and other popular films from that era.

An early talkie that surprisingly has survived over the years, NUMBERED MEN is simply a curiosity and not much else. Never distributed on home video or DVD, it turns up on very rare occasions these days on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (**)

If only prison was like this. The "numbered men" seem mostly to sit around in the lounge of privilege, play games, smoke and josh each other like they are just fellas at the fire house waiting for an alarm. The object is to get on the road gang where they will be on "the honor system". Those words are always spoken with quotes, by the way, by any of the actors. A special treat after work is to pile into the old truck like it's a hayride and visit a farm for home-made doughnuts. Very early talkie and shows the seams of that transition. Bernice Claire has a corn-fed niceness with a touch of vinegar that is appealing.The rest of the cast does not fare well. From a play and not much removed from a stage. Mervyn LeRoy directed. This is where so many prison picture clichés come from, it fun to ring the bell on them, although I don't remember another big house drama with doughnuts.

This is the story of a group of men in an honors unit at the local prison. Because these men have earned the warden's trust, they are able to work in the community and have special privileges. Unfortunately, somehow a complete thug was admitted to the honors unit and threatens to ruin the program for everyone. And, when this bad egg escapes, the rest of the inmates in the program help track down the guy and dispense justice. In the midst of all this is a story about a guy who was framed--framed by the same guy who just escaped.

Have you ever seen a film that is pretty good only to have an ending so preposterous and stupid that it made you wish you hadn't wasted your time? That's exactly my experience with "Numbered Men". The plot isn't bad at all and there are some nice performances--but the ending was just so dumb it pretty much sours me on the film. It earns a 4 simply because the first 90% of the film is decent and probably would have earned a 6.