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Warner Bros., 1940.
Directed by Anatole Litvak. Camera: Arthur Edeson. With
John Garfield,
Ann
Sheridan,
Pat
O'Brien,
Burgess Meredith, Henry O'Neill, Jerome Cowan,
Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, John Litel, William Hopper. |
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Tommy Gordon, a tough young crook, is sent to
Sing Sing Prison for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
When Tommy's lawyer, Ed Crowley, a corrupt ward boss, tries to make a deal
with Warden Long to give Tommy special attention, Long burns the bribe and
informs Crowley that prison is a democracy―no inmate is better than any
other.
Tommy resents the prison routine, but the
understanding Long finally makes an impression on him. Steve Rockford,
a well-educated convict, plans a prison break which the newly reformed Tommy
refuses to join. A guard and a convict are killed in the unsuccessful
prison break, after which Steve commits suicide.
Meanwhile in New York, Tommy's girl friend, Kay
Manners, who has kept after Crowley to work for Tommy's release, is injured
when she jumps from a car to escape his advances. Long allows Tommy to
visit Kay on the promise that he will return to prison. At Kay's
apartment, Tommy and Crowley exchange blows and Tommy is knocked
unconscious. Crowley is about to kill Tommy when Kay shoots and kills
Crowley instead.
Tommy escapes and is about to leave the country on a
boat when he learns that Long is about to be fired for allowing him to leave
prison. To save his friend's reputation, Tommy returns and surrenders.
Tommy is sentenced to the electric chair for
Crowley's murder. Kay tries to convince Long that she is the actual
murderer, but Tommy will not back up her story. When Kay visits him in
prison, Tommy tells her that even if her confession was believed, they still
would never be together. When Kay asks him to marry her before he
dies, Tommy advises her to marry a swell guy, not someone like him, and goes
to his death happy in the knowledge that he has done something decent in
saving Kay from a prison sentence. |
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