20,000 Years in Sing Sing

... 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.