Hell's House
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Hell's House |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 72 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Howard Higgin |
| script |
Paul Gangelin , B. Harrison Orkow , Howard Higgin |
| production | BF Zeidman |
| camera | Alan G. Siegler |
| cut | Edward Schroeder |
| occupation | |
| |
Hell's House is a 1932 American drama directed by Howard Higgin who also developed the plot for the film.
action
After his mother was run over by a car, the teenage boy Jimmy Mason moved to live with relatives - Aunt Emma and Uncle Henry - in a completely new city. His relatives' lodger is the charming Matt Kelly, who arouses admiration in the naive Jimmy with his self-confident demeanor and alleged connections to politicians and celebrities. However, in reality, Matt is an alcohol smuggler ( prohibition still prevails in the USA ). Since Jimmy's uncle loses his job and he does not want to be a financial burden to his relatives, he offers himself to Matt as an assistant in his business, without knowing that they are illegal. Jimmy is quickly arrested by the police, where he is offered the release if he divulges the name of his boss. But he is silent and hopes that Matt will get him out of his alleged connections - he may have a guilty conscience about Jimmy, but keeps quiet, otherwise he would have to be arrested and have to give up his comfortable life with his girlfriend Peggy.
Since Jimmy remains silent, he is sentenced to three years in a reform school . In this, the young people have to do hard and monotonous work such as throwing bricks, also because the institution receives too little money from the state and has to pay off in other ways. In the event of indiscipline, the youths receive harsh punishment from the guards, an exit is not allowed, only letters strictly controlled by the guards. Jimmy befriends a boy with heart disease named Shorty, who tries to smuggle a letter to Matt out past the guards for Jimmy. However, Shorty is discovered and placed in solitary confinement. Because of his good behavior, Jimmy is meanwhile made a co-overseer himself, which gives him preferential treatment, but is despised by his comrades and has to punish them if necessary. The nerve-wracking solitary confinement does not get Shorty's poor health and he is carried away seriously ill. Jimmy then escapes from the youth institution to look for better medical care for his friend.
Jimmy seeks out Matt and Peggy, but while the alcohol smuggler hesitates, Peggy takes the initiative and forces her friend to call the famous newspaper columnist Frank Gebhardt. Gebhardt has wanted to reveal the bad conditions in the youth institutions for a long time and also visited Jimmy's institution for this purpose, but only got to see a pimped up "Sunday version" of this from the director of the institution Thompson. That's why Gebhardt is all the more burning for Jimmy to tell his story for the newspaper. The police find Jimmy in Gebhardt's office and want to bring him back to the youth institution, but at Gebhardt and Peggy's insistence, Matt gives a jerk. Matt confesses to his illegal smuggling and declares Jimmy's innocence, whereupon the youngster is released and can report to Gebhardt. For Shorty, however, any help comes too late, he has since died of the consequences of his heart disease and solitary confinement.
background
Bette Davis, who was by no means at the peak of her career at the time, was loaned to producer Zeidman for the film from her actual studio, Universal . You and Pat O'Brien are named first in the opening credits, although the teenage lead actor Junior Durkin actually has the central role. The film, shot on a low budget, was made within just 13 days and was actually supposed to be called Juvenile Court .
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall gave the film a mixed report in the New York Times of February 12, 1932: The attacks on the Reform Schools were "hardly adult", but had a few "somewhat interesting nuances". Higgins direction is "old-fashioned", the portrayal of Pat O'Brien as a smuggler seems "forced". On the other hand, Junior Durkin and Bette Davis would convince in their roles, Morgan Wallace succeeded in an "outstanding performance" as reporter Gebhardt.
Web links
- Hell's House at the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Hell's House (1932) - Howard Higgin | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie. Retrieved November 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Stine, Whitney, and Davis, Bette, Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis . New York: Hawthorn Books 1974. ISBN 0-8015-5184-6 , pp. 15-18
- ^ Mordaunt Hall .: In a Reformatory. ( nytimes.com [accessed November 18, 2018]).