Hell behind bars

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Hell behind bars
Original title The big house
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1930
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director George W. Hill
script Frances Marion ,
Joseph Farnham ,
Martin Flavin
production Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
music Louis Silvers
camera Harold Wenstrom
cut Blanche Sewell
occupation

Hell behind bars (Original title: The Big House ) is an American film directed by George W. Hill from 1930. The main roles are played by Wallace Beery and Chester Morris . The film was the first large-scale production to deal with the sometimes untenable conditions in the country's prisons.

action

Young and scary Kent Marlowe is jailed for driving a drunk car and killing a man in the process. His cellmates are Butch Schmidt and John Morgan, who are incarcerated for murder and robbery. Conditions in the prison are harsh, especially in the canteen, where inmates are confronted with bad food. When Butch complains about the food, causing unrest among the prisoners, security guard James Adams sends him into solitary confinement for 30 days. Before he is taken away, Butch can pass on his hidden knife. The knife arrives at Kent. Oliver, a thief, tells Kent that if he gives information to the guards, his term can be shortened. Terrified, Kent hides the knife under John's belongings. The head guard Wallace has John's bunk searched and finds the knife. Although John is due to be released the next day, he is also sent to solitary confinement. At the end of his time in solitary confinement, he feigns unconsciousness and is taken to the prison hospital. During the night he swaps beds with an inmate who has just died. He escapes from prison in the hearse.

John, who suspects Kent has slipped the knife into him, visits his sister Anne, who runs a bookstore. Anne, who knows John by sight, pretends to be an old friend when Policeman Donlin walks into the store. John finds work and spends time with Anne and her family. Soon the two fall in love. But Donlin has now recognized John and arrests him. John decides to do his time and then start a new life. Butch tries to persuade John to break out with him, Kent, and a few others, but John refuses. On the day of the planned outbreak, John is called to the prison administration. The moment of the outbreak comes when the doors are opened for the prison gardener Gopher to deliver a bouquet of flowers to a security guard. However, the escapees are awaited by Wallace and his men, who shoot them with submachine guns. Butch suspects John of treason. But John didn't reveal anything to Wallace. On the contrary, Wallace told John that Kent was the informant.

Some of the escapes are killed. Butch and several others barricade themselves in a cell block after finding submachine guns. They have taken some guards hostage and are threatening to kill them. John tries to save a couple of the guards but is wounded himself. The cell block is stormed with tear gas and a tank, killing the panicked Kent. The badly wounded Butch tries to kill John until another of the escapees informs him that Kent was the traitor. Just before he dies, Butch smiles at John and tells him he never killed him, it was just a joke. When calm has returned, John is passed off as a hero and pardoned by the governor. John promises Adams to remain honest and law-abiding from now on. He wants to move away and buy a piece of land. When the prison gates open, Anne is waiting for him.

background

Since its founding in 1924, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio had quickly risen to become the most profitable company in Hollywood alongside Paramount Studios . MGM now had a reputation for having the best technicians and the best artists under contract. The average budget per film was well above the usual amounts and MGM specialized in romances and melodramas, which were mostly set in the posh world. Cedric Gibbons and Gilbert Adrian were responsible for the then legendary luxurious studio look, which sought to combine opulence and elegance. The established female stars like Marion Davies , Greta Garbo , Norma Shearer or Joan Crawford mostly had little reference in their roles to the reality of the global economic crisis and the increasing material hardship. Since mid-1930, however, the country's rapid economic decline has also been an issue for Hollywood. Irving Thalberg therefore decided to follow the trend towards socially critical films with realistic characters and real problems. In the period that followed, there were a number of productions that dealt intensively with social grievances and current problems. In 1929 prison revolts broke out across the USA, some of which were bloody, which ultimately led to numerous reform laws. Thalberg hired Frances Marion , Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter at the time, to do research on the subject. Frances Marion, who had achieved fame in the 1910s, visited the prison in San Quentin , among other places , to find out about the conditions with her own eyes. In numerous conversations with guards, officials and prisoners, the author gained a deep insight into the processes and rituals of everyday life.

The first versions of the script were rejected as too brutal and under pressure from the studio management Marion had to weave a love story with a happy ending into the plot. Nevertheless, the final version contains a number of scenes that have not yet been shown on screen in this openness. The implementation of the film was in the hands of George W. Hill , who insisted on a description that was as accurate as possible. For example, an entire prison block based on the example of San Quentin was recreated on the studio premises in order to achieve the highest level of authenticity. The massive set allowed Hill to use the camera freely and flexibly in a previously unusual way. The use of cranes and rails helped to capture the oppressive atmosphere in the prison itself. For Douglas Shearer shooting brought new, previously in sound film unresolved issues with them. Shearer developed special microphones that made it possible to reproduce the sounds that prisoners make as they march across the courtyard. This also made it possible to realistically reproduce the firing of machine gun salvos. Shearer was then promoted to head of sound engineering and won 14 Academy Awards for best sound in his career .

Hell behind bars turned into one of MGM's biggest financial hits of the year. Wallace Beery made his breakthrough as a star with the film. He had only got the role after the originally intended Lon Chaney Sr. died just before shooting began. Frances Marion wrote three more scripts exclusively for Beery over the next few months: The Strange Mother from the same year as well as The Secret Six and in particular The Champ from 1931, for which Beery finally won the Oscar for best actor . George William Hill and Frances Marion married while filming. The director made a few more films, but his career barely developed further from 1931. In 1934 he left his life voluntarily. In the period that followed, other studios made a number of films that also dealt with conditions behind bars. In early 1931 Paramount countered one of the first films about conditions in women's prisons with Sylvia Sidney and called it Ladies of the Big House Warner Brothers brought 20,000 years in Sing Sing with Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis to distribution as well as Ladies They Talk About , Barbara Stanwyck presented as an innocent convict.

MGM also produced versions of the film in Spanish, German and French at the same time , with different actors each. Charles Boyer , who was still unknown at the time, took on a smaller role. The practice was common in the transition phase from silent film to sound film. Other well-known examples of versions for the foreign-language market are the German version by Anna Christie or the French-language versions of One Hour with You and the Smiling Leutnant .

Reviews

The contemporary critics partially praised the film exuberantly. The New York Times found that "directing, recording, sounding, and great acting would rise above the predictable story." Director Hill would have “worked miracles with his sound effects” and he tried “to achieve realism [...] The advice-tat-tat of the machine guns, the sudden appearance of the two tanks” would “add to the quality of the final scenes”. The lexicon of international films judges more than 70 years after the premiere: "An uncompromising and grippingly staged prison drama, which became trend-setting for this genre."

Award

The film received four nominations at the 1930 Academy Awards (November) and won in the categories of " Best Adapted Screenplay " (to Francis Marion) and " Best Sound " (to Douglas Shearer). The film received further nominations in the categories of " Best Picture " and " Best Actor " (for Wallace Beery).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mordaunt Hall: The Big House (1930). Movie review. The New York Times , June 25, 1930, accessed July 22, 2014 : “It is a film in which the direction, the photography, the microphone work and the magnificent acting take precedence over the negligible story. […] Mr. Hill has worked marvels with his sound effects. He has striven for realism [...] The rat-tat-tat of machine guns, the sudden entry of a couple of tanks add to the stirring quality of the closing scenes. "
  2. ↑ Brief review of hell behind bars. film service , accessed July 22, 2014 .