Dias Sem Fim

Cocky gangster (Garfield) goes to prison where he gradually reforms until given a break by the prison warden (O'Brien). Then problems ensue.

Typically gritty Warner Bros. fare from the pre-war era. Garfield shows he's in the same gangster class as Cagney and Robinson. Watch him spit out dialog faster than a machine gun burst while doing a tough-guy routine. And who better to double-cross him than that slippery lounge lizard Jerome Cowan who could machine gun his own dialog as a reporter in dozens of period films.

But the real scene stealer is scrawny, athletic Burgess Meredith, a brainy con who outwits the prison head-doctor (Grant Mitchell) in the movie's best scene. He may be the least-likely looking con I've seen; still, he and Garfield make a dynamic leadership team (as long as it's not Saturday!). On the other hand, goofy Big Boy Williams strikes me as a matter of taste.

It's a compelling, if not original, plot that redeems Garfield without whitewashing him. Still, I'm not sure what his actual capital crime is when they lead him away, especially when the all-powerful Production Code insisted that justice be served on this side of the pearly gates. Nonetheless, his scenes with the warden (O'Brien) are nicely shaded gems of growing respect, while a lovely Sheridan is affecting as the luckless girlfriend.

As this gutsy little programmer shows, star-studded MGM may have had the gloss, but plebeian Warner's had the grit.

Remake of the 1933 prison drama with Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis, and I haven't seen that one in so long that I can't compare them. But on its own, this is a solid in-the-slammer melodrama, with John Garfield, always sympathetic no matter what he played, getting us to care about Tommy Gordan (the closing credits misspell it Gordon, but it's been Gordan in all the headline sequences), a ruthless crook with an inflated sense of self. When sent literally up the river, and the film gets the Sing Sing location right and has some helpful stock footage, he trusts his lawyer Jerome Cowan to get him out quickly, and he shouldn't. He has a faithful girlfriend in Ann Sheridan, who looks wonderful and was a heck of an actress as well, but here she mainly has to wrinkle her forehead and cry a lot. Gordan engineers a breakout with smart crook Burgess Meredith and stupid crook Guinn Williams, but thinks the better of it, and tough-but-fair warden Pat O'Brien begins to see him in a new light. Then some more plot complications and Tommy getting convicted of another crime he didn't commit, and a somber finale that isn't lightened up by the bombastic Warners music accompanying the fadeout. Nothing unfamiliar here, and a couple of plot points that are tough to buy, but it's mostly smacking good entertainment, and a reminder of what the screen lost when Garfield prematurely left us.

L.W. Lawes wrote the original story, which has been made over a couple times. Garfield had only been in Hollywood a couple years when he made this. Garfield and Sheridan star as Tommy and Kay, with their trials and tribulations, as Tommy is in and out of jail. Pat O'Brien is the warden, his antagonist. Grant Mitchell and Burgess Meredith are in here with minor roles. The usual prison flick capers. Escape attempts. Prisoner scuffles. Pretty well done. Volume goes up and down, but the picture quality is quite good. Must have been restored. Directed by Litvak.. he and Garfield also made "Out of the Fog" together. Sadly, Garfield croaked pretty young at 39, of heart issues. He had been caught up in the communist scare of the 1940s. For a really Great Garfield film, see "Postman Always Rings Twice". Much better all around. Postman shows on Turner and may other channels pretty often.

Castle on the Hudson (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pretty much a scene-by-scene remake of the 1932 drama 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING has gangster Tommy Gordon (John Garfield) being sentenced to prison but he's not worried because he thinks his "connections" will get him out. Soon Tommy realizes that those on the outside want him to remain in prison so he thinks about escaping but the Warden (Pat O'Brien) tries to talk some sense into him. Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis were the stars of the original film, which is slightly better than this one thanks in large part to see the two legends working together. If you've seen that version then nothing here is going to come as a shock to you because I wouldn't be surprised if Warner just dusted off the previous screenplay and used it again, just changing names this time. That original film wasn't a classic so if you haven't seen it then you'll probably be caught up in the story plus we get Garfield turning in another winning performance. His character was too large of an ego and comes off as a major jerk but Garfield could always play these characters and in the end make you care about them. That's what pretty much happens here because after Tommy takes his beatings he finally comes to except prison life and how it actually is. Garfield is so believable in the part that you can't help but want to see him succeed in what he's doing no matter what he was convicted of. O'Brien plays his character countless times before in a number of Warner pictures. That heart of gold who takes in the bad and makes them see how good they could be. O'Brien and Garfield work extremely well together and they're certainly the main reason to check this film out. Ann Sheridan plays the girlfriend and isn't too bad in the part but the character is so poorly written that she becomes quite annoying due to how stupid she is. Burgess Meredith plays a fast-talking convict who tries to talk Garfield into escaping and Guinn Williams is the lovable lug head. Warner made a ton of gangster and prison pics and while this here isn't nearly the best, there are at least enough good moments to make it worth viewing but I'd still catch the original first.

John Garfield steps into the shoes of, most obviously Spencer Tracy (it is, after all, a remake of the earlier "20000 Years in Sing Sing") and also Cagney (in "Angels With Dirty Faces") in Anatole Litvak's prison drama, even finding himself pitted against Tracy's old mate and Cagney's "Angels" co-star Pat O'Brien.

Garfield is the upwardly mobile mobster who finally takes a fall, winding up in the notorious Osining or Sing Sing penitentiary under the tough but fair governorship of O'Brien. Garfield is initially defiant but it's amazing what three months in solitary confinement and worrying about the girl you left behind, in this case, Ann Sheridan can do to even the toughest of tough guys and soon the one-time rebel is starting to play ball with the law, to use Dylan's phrase.

When he learns that Sheridan is critically ill after a close encounter with his supposedly supportive but in truth, backstabbing lawyer, Garfield's good behaviour inside sees him allowed out by the benevolent governor on an own-recognisance overnight furlough (whoever heard of such a thing for such a dangerous criminal!), to visit his ailing girl, but rats!, this falls on a Saturday which as we've already been made well aware, is Jinx-day for Johnny.

Sure enough, it all goes wrong when Garfield visits Sheridan in hospital and accidentally encounters his two-timing lawyer and there's also the little matter of the governor, who stands to lose his job if Garfield doesn't do the honourable thing and turn himself back in, leaving the stage clear for a climactic Rocky Sullivan-type dilemma for our hero.

Litvak keeps the action moving briskly and there's good synergy among the three leads, enmeshing Garfield's typically hot-wired demeanour, O'Brien's paternal concern and Sheridan's blind devotion. A young Burgess Meredith also makes a good impression as a would-be escapee.

As usual, Litvak inserts a montage or three into the action, but overall this short but sharp early-noir thriller built around the charismatic Garfield is well worth tracking down.