A triptych of disparate desperadoes trapped behind concrete and steel stage their own desperate denouement. In other words, three convicts try to survive incarceration but decide life is better on the other side of the steel bars. George Miller’s direction evokes Neo-Realism before the genre existed as his camera seems embedded in the grimy life of the prisoners, capturing the large jail-yard crowds and dinner halls, men who are forced to march, eat and sleep in a strange asynchronous spin and orbit at the mercy of the mystical Celestial body known as the Criminal Justice System. This is no costume drama unless you consider the costumes gray fatigues caked with filth and desperation with a knife or Tommy Gun to accessorize.
Kent (Robert Montgomery) is a young man just oozing innocence and goodness yet he’s not innocent, he’s guilty of a drunken homicide by vehicle on New Years Eve. The film starts with Kent being brought to prison in his suite and tie then undressed and transformed from a human being into a number stitched on his uniform. This naïve young man is assigned to a cell with two of the toughest inmates: Butch (Wallace Beery) and Morgan (Chester Morris). Kent’s mannered appearance and lithe build is immediately contrasted with Butch’s pugnacious attitude and bulldog visage: he’s like a violent baby. But Morgan is the one to truly fear as he’s intelligent, good looking, street-wise and manipulative. He talks Butch into giving Kent back his cigarettes after Butch knocks the newcomer out just so he can slyly pickpocket them for himself. The film merely mentions Kent’s punishment but this film isn’t about how unfair it is or the way he’s treated: it accepts these facts at face value as the drama unfolds. Kent is scared shitless and Robert Montgomery does an excellent job of conveying this tension through body language and expression: he just never quite fits in. Soon the dull routine sets into our characters like a slow-growing cancer causing them to die just a little bit every day.
Butch is eventually sent to Solitary after inciting a riot over the awful food and Morgan gets notice of an early parole. Kent however, secrets Butch’s knife in Morgan’s suitcase so now Morgan’s freedom is denied and he’s sent to the Hole vowing revenge upon the waifish rookie. Morgan escapes prison by hiding in the prison’s Hearse and he tracks down Kent’s sister to exact his promised vengeance. But Anne recognizes him yet feels sorry for Morgan and drops her guard. The two settle into a relationship as he continues to hide from Police and they begin to fall in love. Once captured, Morgan is brought back to his old haunt just in time for the jailbreak….and what a jailbreak! Butch’s terrible plan quickly devolves into a massacre of machine-gun fire, teargas and tanks FUCKING TANKS! bashing their way through locked steel doors. It’s chaos as Kent is the stoolie who squawked to the Warden so his life expectancy is severely limited but Morgan wants to keep him alive because he loves his sister and understands Kent got a raw deal to begin with. Butch thinks Morgan squealed so guards are murdered, inmates shot down like animals and the two cellmates engage in their own gunfight amidst the fog of war. And poor Kent panics and runs from hiding only to be shot down like a dog.
The script is solid as it doesn’t become too talky and allows the actors space to express themselves non-verbally. Wallace Beery gets to spout most of the inane language but it fits his illiterate and uneducated character and he is able to believably veer from homicidal aggression to infantile suppliance. Morgan and Kent are characters without sharp corners (though Morgan was convicted of Robbery) so Morgan’s happy ending seems well-deserved. The Art Deco design of the prison is like something from a Fritz Lang silent film and the photography at times echoes that German Expressionist exemplar. THE BIG HOUSE resolves it’s overpopulation problem with mayhem and murder but at least Morgan and Ann have a future together. Maybe they’ll name their first child Kent.
Final Grade: (B)
