L'ora tragica

"The Last Mile" is an interesting melodrama set on death row. While it is not entirely credible, and is often heavy-handed, the characters are memorable, and there is a lot of tense action.

The story begins with Richard Walters (Howard Phillips) being condemned to death for a murder that he claims not to have committed. He is sent to death row, and not long after he gets acquainted with the other inmates, a riot breaks out, led by the brutal killer Mears. Walters gets enmeshed in violent events even as his friends on the outside are frantically trying to gather evidence of his innocence. Most of the developments lack believability, and are rather obviously forced, but the story is undeniably dramatic. Once involved, you will have to watch it to the end.

While imperfect and low-budget, this is an interesting film that will keep your attention if you start to watch it.

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)

The Last Mile was a popular play of the early depression years that had starred Spencer Tracy on Broadway in the principal role of Killer Mears. His performance there, brought him rave critical notice and a Hollywood contract with Fox Films. Also Clark Gable portrayed the same role in a West Coast production and his performance there got him noticed by MGM who signed Gable and launched that career.

Interesting that two of Hollywood's major stars from the studio era both owed their careers to this play. But The Last Mile didn't come to the screen from a major studio. It was a small independent B film and the biggest name they could get was Preston Foster. Not that Foster was bad, but I really would have loved to see either Gable or Tracy tackle this part for the screen.

Nevertheless Foster does a capable job. During the 30s he was in some top drawer films. Besides this Foster is probably best known for his role in The Informer as the IRA captain who hunts, tries, and then orders the execution of Victor McLaglen. He drifted downward into B films in the 40s and later on gave good performances in supporting parts. His best later career film was Kansas City Confidential, supporting John Payne.

Although its dated and overacted in spots, The Last Mile is still good entertainment and a must see for those who are opposed to capital punishment. Some of the stereotypes of the prisoners on death row are still in use today, most notably in The Green Mile.

But to have only seen Tracy or Gable do it.

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, 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.