The Last Mile

Kindly, sympathetic, upstanding convicts who are on Death Row for no good reason that we ever learn (except that we know Dick Walters has been wrongfully convicted)are put to death by prison guards who vary from indifferent to mean, while the Warden agonizes over what good capital punishment does and the meaning of it all -- until an attempted prison break turns him into the most bloodthirsty of all.

The one-set stage play is opened up a little bit by scenes showing the crime for which Walters has been convicted and the discovery of the criminals who really committed the crime. Good performances are turned in by Preston Forster as Killer Mears, the one prisoner who shows a mean streak that may have landed him on Death Row; and by Daniel L. Haynes, who had starred in Hallelujah three years earlier, as the token black singing prisoner.

Anti-death penalties dramas haven't become more balanced or less simplistic; if anything, the thumb on the scale is even heavier in The Green Mile's recounting of the execution of angelic Michael Clarke Duncan. But today more realistic depictions of prison life and prisoners abound in cable television documentaries, and the misplaced sentimentality of The Last Mile toward its misunderstood convicts isn't easily swallowed. It does, however, have Killer Mears' bravado line at the end of the prison break: "I think I'll go get a little air."

Prison films have been a staple of film since the early years. "Up the River" (1930) with Hmphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy and "Manslaughter" (1930) with Frederich March and Claudette Colbert were some early ones. "The Big House" (1930) was the first of the prison films to capture an audience, and as such, it is the archetype for almost every prison movie to follow, apart from the "chain gang" films that have their origins in Paul Muni's excellent 1932 "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang." The Big House was so popular that Laurel and Hardy produced a spoof called "Pardon Us" in 1931. It was their first feature film. That same year "The Criminal Code" (1931) with Walter Huston and Boris Karloff came out.

Interest in prison spawned the Broadway play "The Last Mile" from which this film came. The play launched the careers of Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. The same year this film came out we also had "20,000 years in Sing Sing" (1932)

Other prisons films from the 1930s include "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932), "The Mayor of Hell" (1933), "Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936), "San Quentin" (1937), "Devil's Island" (1939) and " Each Dawn I Die" (1939).

Among all the films of this genre, "The Last Mile" has the least production values, probably due to its origins as a play. It also has the least star power, with Preston Foster (1900-70) playing the lead role as the psychopathic killed. This was Foster's first big break and only his fifth film. I remember him best from the TV series "Waterfront" (1954-5) and "Northwest Mounted Police" (1940).

Also present is Paul Fix (1901-83) who is best remembered as the Marshall from "The Rifleman" (1958-63) and who was one of the busiest actors on TV.

The director is Sam Bischoff (1890-1975) who got his start working in the "Poverty Row" studios. He moved to Warners where he specialized in crime films ("The Roaring Twenties", "The Phenix City Story", "Angels with Dirty Faces").

The film is preachy and heavy handed. It reflects some negative attitudes about capital punishment, caused by an increase in capital punishment beginning in the 1920s where criminality was considered genetic and the eugenics movement was strong. In the 1930s capital punishment reached its peak, averaging 167 per year, and the methods included electricity and gas.

It's hard to recommend the film. "The Big House" is far superior.

The Last Mile, based on a popular John Wexley play of its time (1932), features an ensemble of death row inmates. Though the film does a good deal of effective characterization, we only really get to know two of the condemned - the innocent Dick Walters (Howard Phillips) and the "Killer" Mears (Preston Foster) - his neighbor in the cell block. The rest of the characters are archetypes of one kind or another, allowing the somewhat heavy-handed theatrical script some needed economy as the film builds quite slowly to a strong climax.

Mears stages a breakout and Walters has no choice but to get caught up in it, along with all of the other inmates. The warden, who has generally been, according to the prisoners, a decent guy, doesn't see that he has any choice about how to handle the situation.

The film is oddly introduced by a written introduction that makes a case against the death penalty based, apparently, on religious morality. With the exception of the juxtaposition of Killer Mears and our innocent protagonist Mr. Walters, it is not at all clear how this bit of moralism enhances the film nor how the film supports the political viewpoint of its author.

Theatrical scripts and sets do not always translate perfectly into film. The 1932 film of this play exemplifies the problem. Most of the camera work sticks to the point of view of a play's audience and the film mostly occurs in a very stark, statically shot prison block set. This effectively places the audience in the monotony of the prison experience throughout the film's action-less first half, but the effect only serves to accentuate the story's limitations so that, by the time the plot begins to accelerate, at least some of the audience has made up its mind about what will happen, how, and why. It is, however, worth sticking around to see how it does or doesn't play out.

Relentlessly Grim Prison-Pic from a Play by John Wexley who also Wrote the Script. It's of the "Reform" Type with its Critical Eye on "Death Row" and Specifically the "Death Penalty".

The First Half is the most Dated and Tough to get Through Today with its Heavy Melodramatics, Over Acting, and Exaggerated Mental Anguish Displays. There's some Bite to the Dialog but the Performances Suffer from Stagy Emoting and Projection.

But the Second-Half Kicks in and the Movie becomes Engaging, Suspenseful, Violent, and even more Poignant. Some of the Imagery, while Confined by a Low-Budget and its Stage Play Roots, still manages to be very Atmospheric and Gloomy.

It's an Artifact of its Era for sure, but that makes it Relevant as a Time Capsule of both Cinema and Social Concerns. It can be Powerful at times and is Definitely Worth a Watch.

THE LAST MILE (World Wide, 1932), directed by Sam Bischoff, is not exactly a racing story of cars or horses going through their last lap towards the finish line, but in convicts terms, a prison movie about execution. Taken from a stage play by John Wexley that reportedly starred Spencer Tracy (New York) and Clark Gable (West Coast), it might have been interesting watching either any of these two fine actors reprise his original roles of "Killer" Mears: Tracy for Fox Studios or Gable at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Instead, the Mears role went to the second billed Preston Foster, who did a fine job as Mears. The central character, however, is played by the top-billed Howard Phillips, a name not known but so happens to be one of the actors from the stage production in this screen adaptation whose movie career was relatively brief and totally forgotten.

Following an introductory message about "prison and of the condemned, and what society is going to do about it" by Lewis E. Lawes, warden of Sing-Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, the story opens in a courtroom where Richard Walters (Howard Phillips) is sentenced by the judge for murder in the first degree, and to be executed for his crime on September 13th. Richard's mother (Louise Carter) immediately screeches and cries upon sentence as she witnesses her boy taken away by the guards. No longer a name but now simply an identification number, Richard is placed in a cell on death row surrounded by other condemned prisoners, including John "Killer" Mears (Preston Foster), the toughest of the bunch. As he witnesses Joe Berg (George E. Stone) of Cell 1 being escorted his last mile through the little green door to the electric chair, Richard faints dead away. A flashback foretells to what led to his prison sentence. (Richard's business partner, Max Kuger (Max Wagner) borrows a large sum of money from their bank account, followed by a gas station robbery where Kuger is shot and killed by police while Richard, caught with a gun in his hand, arrested for a crime for which he is innocent). During the course of time, a prison break arises, and Killer Mears threatening to kill every one of his hostages, ranging from prison guards (one being brother-in-law to the warden) to a prison priest unless the warden, Frank Lewis (Frank Sheridan) doesn't meet with his demands for freedom.  

With 1932 seemingly being the year of prison or chain gang themes, bearing such titles as HELL'S HIGHWAY (RKO Radio, with Richard Dix) and the classic I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (Warner Brothers, starring Paul Muni), where Louise Carter plays the mother in each of these aforementioned movie titles, it's interesting how THE LAST MILE wasn't part of the Warner Brothers list of social issues, considering how that studio specialized on this sort of material, or even MGM, where THE BIG HOUSE (1930) featuring Wallace Beery, having started the whole cycle about men behind bars for that time, in spite the fact that Samuel Goldwyn's CONDEMNED (1929) starring Ronald Colman arrived a year earlier. Fox films did one amusing parody of UP THE RIVER (1930) with Spencer Tracy, while Hal Roach got Laurel and Hardy to spoof it in PARDON US (1931). Yet THE LAST MILE, produced by a non-major movie studio, holds up, even where portions seem to be like a reproduced stage play. The story does contain some outdoor activities, but the death row scenes with prisoners holding on to the metal bars in upward positions to be what's shown the most, giving indication to how the play was performed and presented on stage. Other actors in the cast include: Daniel L. Haynes (Sonny Jackson, Cell # 2); Edward Van Sloan (The Rabbi); Alec B. Francis (Father O'Connor); Noel Madison (D'Amoro, Cell # 6); Alan Roscoe (Kirby, Cell # 7), Al Hill (Werner, Cell # 8); among others. Of the major actors, Preston Foster gathers the most attention over Howard Phillips while George E. Stone being a close second through his small but very effective performance.

THE LAST MILE was successful enough to spawn a 1959 remake for United Artists starring Mickey Rooney in one of his finer roles during his latter-day career. The 1932 original, almost forgotten until its resurrection in the 1980s with 1940s reissue opening title from Astor Pictures being the print in current circulation as part of a 45 minute featurette on public television's "Matinee at the Bijou" in 1982. Availability has been followed onto video cassette distribution and later DVD process, along with complete 68 minute late night broadcasts on various public television stations until the 1990s. Cable television has been rare, though notably shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: October 5, 2016) where the Astor Print reissue print rather was shown than the 1932 World Wide original opening instead. Regardless of its age, its a gripping screen adaptation about convicts on death row awaiting their last mile to eternal freedom. (*** pardons)