20,000 Years in Sing Sing

Like so many films made during Hollywood's classic era, this one was re-made just a few years later as "Castle on the Hudson" (with John Garfield). Both are quite good but I prefer this original film...slightly.

The film begins with Tommy Connors (Spencer Tracy) arriving at Sing Sing. He's cocky and assumes that with his connections he'll get all sorts of special privileges. The warden (Arthur Byron) puts Tommy in his place...and informs him that if he doesn't want to work or wear a prison uniform, he didn't have to...even if that meant going outside in the winter in rags! Eventually, Tommy gets with the program and develops a grudging respect for the warden...and vice-versa. So how does this new-found respect end up backfiring for both of them? Watch the picture.

The acting in this one is simply wonderful. Tracy, as usual, is great but so is the supporting cast. The script also is quite nice...and make for an enjoyable viewing experience.

Great Pre-Code prison flick from Warner Bros. stars Spencer Tracy as an arrogant hoodlum sent to prison where he learns he's not the big shot he thought he was. Gradually he's humbled by a stern but fair warden and we learn he's not such a bad guy after all underneath all that tough talk. Tracy's good in an early role. The fine cast backing him up includes Bette Davis, Louis Calhern, Lyle Talbot, and Arthur Byron. This was the only screen pairing of Tracy and Davis. Bette's likable and pretty here with one nice scene to display her melodramatic acting chops. This might be the first prison movie to use the plot device of a convict being granted 24-hour leave for but doesn't return on time for one reason or another. It would be used in other prison dramas in the years to come. I'm not certain this is the first but I think it might be. It's also notable for having many scenes filmed on location in Sing Sing. It's solid entertainment that any fan of the types of crime dramas WB was known for in the '30s will enjoy.

... and there were several. Some highlighted the brutality of the incarcerated men, others the brutality of their situation, several highlighted both.

It's based on a book by the warden at Sing Sing, portrayed by Arthur Byron who plays the role tough but fair. Tommy Conners (Spencer Tracy) is sentenced to 5-30 years for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He arrives with a bad attitude, and no wonder as he is given a prison uniform big enough for three Spencer Tracys. He is confined to his cell and, true to the warden's prediction, is eventually happy to work on the rock pile just to get out of that cell.

Tommy is still determined to get out though and falls in with a group planning to break out, but when the actual time comes to escape he refuses to go along with the escapees, who wind up dying in the attempt. This isn't to say he's a reformed guy at this point. I think he is somewhat confused as to why he refused himself, and attributes it to Saturdays being bad luck for him. However it is probably that he is beginning to see a correlation between his actions and consequences, and he is unsure about the consequences of a prison break.

Over time, Tommy and the warden both come to the conclusion that the other is not such a bad guy. And then comes the news that Tommy's girlfriend Fay (Bette Davis) has been injured in an automobile accident and is not expected to live. At this point the warden makes a decision that should have been suicide for his career no matter what happens. Complications ensue. Where Warner's earlier film "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" revealed the brutality of prison, this film suggested a remedy.

James Cagney was supposed to play the role of Tommy, but he and WB were having one of the first of their many contract disagreements, so Tracy got the job since he had a resume of playing convicts both on stage and screen, and was thus borrowed from Fox. Once again director Michael Curtiz paid attention to photographic detail by working with actual photographs of Ossining prison for art design and using the sets for the 1930 film The Big House, which were still standing at MGM.

The result is one of those relatively short but powerful precodes Warner Brothers was known for.

20,000 Years in Sing Sing is directed by Michael Curtiz and adapted to screenplay by Wilson Mizner, Brown Holmes, Courtney Terrett and Robert Lord from the book written by Warden Lewis E. Lawes. It stars Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Lyle Talbot, Arthur Byron, Grant Mitchell and Warren Hymer. Music is by Bernhard Kaun and cinematography by Barney McGill.

Cocksure hoodlum Tom Connors (Tracy) enters Sing Sing Prison and is instantly disrespectful towards those in authority. Could it be that the tough - but compassionate for reform - warden can put Connors on the right road?.

Out of Warner Brothers, this crime/prison melodrama manages to rise above its social conscience heart to become gutsy entertainment. This is due in most part to a committed turn from Tracy, the real location photography, the use of real prisoners for key prison scenes and the sense of realism brought about by the adaption from real life Sing Sing Warden Lawes' literature source. Curtiz manages to keep it from being a torrid "message" movie, even keeping a grim feel to proceedings, though his one failing is not to rein in the sometimes over the top perf from Davis as Tom's love interest moll. 7/10

As I write this, "Shawshank Redemption" is IMDb's number two top movie of all time. I find that absolutely fascinating.

The prison movie isn't quite a genre to itself because the story possibilities vary so. But there is a definite collection of cinematic devices that are used in nearly all of them, only "Silence of the Lambs" excepted that I can recall.

This film may be the first to set that collection of cinematic devices. It has a lame redemption story and quite ineffective acting styles. But the way the story is told in images is masterful. The filmmaker is Michael Curtiz, who you will know as the man who took a B movie and framed it beautifully as "Casablanca."

His is an approach very much like the "graphic novel" trend sweeping across Hollywood right now. Simple compositions, starkly presented to be easy to read. A consistent pulse in the way scenes change. Strict attention to the way the brightness is modulated slowly throughout the thing. And of course within this, some shots of prison life that have since become almost mandatory. (Thank God, that slamming door sound effect hadn't found its way into movies yet.)

So, if you are interested in cinematic storytelling, this is something of a must for you.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.