The Big House
Directed by George W. Hill
Written by Frances Marion
1928/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
John Morgan: You know it means the rope, Butch, if they catch you? Who’s in on it?
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: Well, me and Olsen and Joe and the Hawk.
John Morgan: The Hawk? That means blood.
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: No, he promised me he wouldn’t bump nobody off.
John Morgan: Why, he croaked his own mother.
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: Sure he did. He cut her throat. He was sorry for it. He’s all right.
This forerunner of many better prison escape movies of the 30’s is made watchable by its actors.
Kent Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) is sent up to the “Big House” for 10 years for killing a person while drunk driving. He is young, naive, and very nervous. He is put in a cell with ‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt (Wallace Beery) who is serving a life sentence for murder and John Morgan (Chester Morris), a thief also serving a ten-year sentence. The two hardened criminals try to show Kent the ropes but he is a coward who would rather snitch than fight.
The story covers the planning and execution of an escape attempt. Morgan falls in love with Kent’s sister (Leila Hyams) in a minor subplot.
The acting is good but I didn’t find too many thrills. The main point of the movie seems to be to point out crowding and corruption in the prison system.
The Big House won Oscars for Best Writing and Best Sound. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor (Beery). Amazing how Wallace Beery could be both so darn lovable and so damned menacing at the same time!
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