Prison Break

From 1937 through 1939, Barton MacLane and Glenda Farrell made seven Torchy Blaine films together--he as the police lieutenant and Farrell as Torchy, a crime-solving reporter. During this same period, the pair made this film at Universal, not at their usual Warner Brothers home.

While "Prison Break" is clearly a B-movie with a modest budget and cast, it is a dandy film--and a nice chance for MacLane to prove he was a very good actor and could play characters other than baddies and cops. It begins with Joaquin (MacLane) working on a tuna boat and planning on marrying his sweetie (Farrell). At the same time, his buddy is planning on marrying Joaquin's sister and all looks great. However, when a man is killed, Joaquin takes the blame in order to help this friend--and ends up in prison. Things get worse when the same guy (Ward Bond) committed the murder is soon admitted to the same prison--and he's aching for a fight with Joaquin. Although Joaquin cannot help it, this fight and future fights against this thug serve to increase his sentence and it looks like he'll never get out at this rate! What's to become of nice-guy Joaquin? See the picture and find out for yourself--as there is a lot more to this film.

The best thing about this film is MacLane--his acting was quite good. Additionally, while the story has some tough to believe coincidences, the film is enjoyable throughout. Plus, it has some reasonable criticisms of prisons and the parole system--ways that they might serve to make a guy who can be rehabilitated into a hardened criminal.

I found this movie well made considering the era it was made in, probably on a shoestring budget. It does a very good job of conveying the difficulties anyone with a criminal record or down on their luck, justly or otherwise has, in staying out of trouble.

The lead character is portrayed with credibility & it is easy to understand the complex situations he becomes involved in, encouraging empathy from unbiased viewers observing his plight. In fact, he has a greater integrity surely, than a great many who always steer the favourable side of shady deals. And amongst it all, he finds himself up against other inmates, prison officers & prospective employers, to mention just a few. He is supported & consoled only by his sympathetic romantic interest. The settings & bureaucratic nightmare he finds himself in, in & outside of prison, are sadly all too applicable to the more modern world scenarios about us, as back in the era of this movie made in the aftermath of the tough realities of the Depression years.

But this "Prison Break" succeeds in being entertaining as well as informative & insightful. It is well worth a view!

Prison Break finds the two leads of Warner Brothers Torchy Blane series, Barton MacLane and Glenda Farrell, in a serious sociological drama about the dilemma of an ex-convict trying to go straight. Both in and outside of prison MacLane has it really stacked against him.

This film was done for Universal Pictures and MacLane plays a captain of tuna fishing boat who's in love with Glenda Farrell. She's a widow with a small son, but for reasons not quite explained her father Victor Kilian has a vicious hatred for MacLane. MacLane also has a sister played by Constance Moore who is in love with Edmund MacDonald who works on MacLane's boat.

On his bachelor party night, MacDonald gets good and drunk and later wakes up next to the unconscious body of Edward Pawley who is brother to Farrell and son of Kilian. MacLane says he clocked, but the next day Pawley dies and MacLane is in a jackpot for manslaughter.

In prison MacLane's nemesis is Ward Bond who is one vicious thug, usually the kind of part MacLane plays in films. Which is also coincidental because if you recall both MacLane and Bond played partner cops in The Maltese Falcon and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.

In the end it all resolves itself a little too neatly. In fact when Bond kills a prison guard during an escape attempt that should have brought the death penalty for him. I'm surprised that Universal Pictures neglected that little fact.

Still MacLane gives a really good and sincere performance as a man trapped by circumstances only partly of his own making. He should never have taken the rap, even though he thought it was only for assault. A bit melodramatic and neat still Prison Break is a well made B film from Universal and it was nice to see Barton MacLane as a good guy and hero in this film.

This above average B-feature is perhaps most noteworthy for giving Barton MacLane a chance at a starring role, and as a character that he is well-suited to portray. From his first scene, MacLane's hearty style establishes the character believably and sympathetically. Along with some help from a good supporting cast, his effective portrayal helps keep things going despite some noticeably implausible plot turns here and there.

The story has MacLane as a fishing boat captain who is wrongly convicted and imprisoned, and then faced with a whole new set of problems when he is paroled. The story provides some good drama as the captain faces a wide variety of obstacles and enemies not of his own making, and as an incidental feature the movie also highlights a number of the defects and inequities of the justice system.

As MacLane's brutal antagonist, Ward Bond plays his role well. Glenda Farrell is solid as MacLane's loyal love interest, while Paul Hurst and Victor Killian make good use of their scenes.

Given the limited resources, the settings at dockside and in the prison are done believably. The story has too many obvious plot holes, and it depends too much on unlikely coincidences, but it does set up some good opportunities for the cast. Overall, it's a pretty good movie for its era and genre.

It was weird that a fairly middling crime drama from the 1930s had a reasonably high rating and more than 5000 votes on Letterboxd, but this is one of those instances where people have imported their IMDb ratings and those ratings go toward a movie, seeing as shows aren't really on Letterboxd (at least not multi-season ones).

I remember something similar happened to a super obscure 1940s movie called Mad About Men or something - it had a rating of more than 4/5 because it assimilated all the ratings people had given Mad Men the show.

Anyway, 1938's Prison Break is just fine. At least it's not long, and it doesn't overextend itself. It does kind of underextend itself (is that even a term?) but I don't know; it's almost kinda watchable. I feel a bit duper about the whole Prison Break show to movie mix-up that made me intrigued about the high rating, but it is what it is.