Up the River

This is an OK film that would probably not be worth watching if it were not for its place in film history - the only pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy and an early performance for the both of them. Here the pair both play a couple of convicts. Bogart is Steve Jordan, finishing up a sentence for manslaughter, and Tracy as Saint Louis is just starting one at the same prison. There are several strange aspects to this film about prison life and what comes afterwards. The first is that Bogart is playing the naive smiling kid whose one punch landed him in prison - you just don't run across a smiling nice-guy Bogart committed to celluloid every day of the week . The second odd aspect is that Tracy is playing a seasoned con, though with a bit of a heart of copper if not gold. It's strange to see Tracy taking "the kid" Bogart under his wing when in fact Bogart was a year older than Tracy. What makes the film better than average is that it is a believable performance by both actors.

The other strange aspect of this film is the depiction of prison life. The women are housed in the same prison as the men with just an iron gate separating the areas where the two groups have outdoor recreation. Bogart, who works in the prison office, gets to wear a suit and tie when he is at work there. The warden's little daughter walks around unguarded and treats the convicts all like uncles, and they reciprocate by treating her like a niece and reading her stories. The whole thing comes across like you are looking at life inside a Catholic high school with strict rules about the interaction of men and women, not a prison where you might have a few characters like Bogart's and Tracy's, but by and large most of these guys didn't get here by dropping out of Sunday school.

The worst part of the film is a rather inane musical number that gets inserted into the film at about the half-way point, with the convicts putting on a show. Ford got better at putting music into his films later on, but here it just intrudes on the plot.

I'd recommend viewing this. It's enjoyable enough, just be aware that the elements are in shaggy shape and that even the restored version by Fox has lots of skipping frames.

The famous Director, John Ford presented a great 1930 film starring Spencer Tracy, (Saint Louis) who plays the role as a big time crook who has gone in and out of correctional facilities and he encounters Humphrey Bogart, (Steve) who is also a convict in the same prison. A pretty young blonde gal named Judy, (Claire Luce) becomes a prisoner and meets Steve and they become immediately attracted to each other and Steve has only a few weeks before he is released. There is plenty of comedy in this film and it is great to see how very young Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart appear in this film who were just starting out on their great careers on Hollywoods Silver Screen. John Ford made another film with Spencer Tracy after twenty-eight years and Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart never made another picture appearing in the same picture. There is great acting by the entire cast and do not miss this film, it is worthwhile to enjoy this great entertainment.

Wonderfully entertaining comedy drama about two prisoners (Bogart and Luce) who fall in love and what happens after Bogart is paroled. Spencer Tracy plays a flamboyant convict who comes to their aid when the two lovebirds are threatened by some very bad men. Lighthearted fun, set in a prison only Hollywood could dream up. An early John Ford talkie,this was made when and Bogart and Tracy were at the beginning of their careers. They are a blast to watch, and Luce is charming as a timid young woman who has been imprisoned on the flimsiest of charges. Some great comedic moments. A must-see for fans of two of the greatest actors of the 20th century.

Up the River finds Spencer Tracy and Warren Hymer as a pair of amiable convicts who seem to function far better in the prison environment than outside. Later sociologists would call these two institutionalized and would be thinking it's a bad thing.

Ironically I knew someone who was just like that, he'd been arrested on a couple minor beefs and found he really did function better inside jail than out among the populace. I doubt though he would have found the subject matter in Up the River as entertaining as I did.

Prison seems to be a good setting for John Ford's kind of knockabout, roughhouse comedy. Although I doubt you could ever get away with a minstrel act at the prison variety show and find two black convicts in the audience just laughing and applauding even more than the white prisoners.

Humphrey Bogart is in the film as well and he's a trustee and soon to be released. There's a woman's wing in this prison and Bogey and Claire Luce fall for each other. When Bogey gets released though another and sleazier crook played by Morgan Farley spots him in his proper New England town and threatens to tell mom about her son's prison stay. She thinks he's been in China all this time.

Word of this gets out and Tracy and Hymer crash out to help their friend.

This film would be consigned to the garbage heap of Hollywood were it not for the presence of Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart and the direction of John Ford. Ford directs them and the rest of the cast with a sure hand and the film is entertaining even after 77 years and a far more sensitive populace to racial indignity. You have to remember that in 1930 the most popular show on radio was Amos and Andy.

Some will be surprised to see Bogart cast as a young juvenile, Tracy refers to him as a kid even though Tracy was a year younger in real life. In point of fact on stage Bogart played those kind of juvenile parts so those who knew his stage work back in 1930 would not have been surprised. Still it's not the Bogey we're used to.

As for Tracy, Up the River set the pattern for his Fox career and his early films with MGM, playing lovable mugs. That's what you'll see him as for the most part in his Fox period. MGM signed him as a Wallace Beery backup. But when he played Father Tim Mullin in San Francisco it opened up whole new vistas for him as we well know.

Despite its defects Up the River is still a valuable piece of cinema history. Too bad Tracy and Bogey, good friends in real life, never got to work on a joint project when they both became big names.

Up the River (1930)

** (out of 4)

John Ford's prison comedy has been forgotten in the director's filmography and what limited knowledge people have about it is more with its stars. Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart made their first big splash on the big screen here and this would be the only film they'd do together. In the film, Bogart falls in love with a female prisoner (Claire Luce) and they plan to get married once she gets paroled but a man from her past comes after Bogart once he's released from jail. Needing help, two buddies (Tracy, Warren Hymer) escape from prison and go after the man. There's also a subplot dealing with a big baseball game between two prisons but this doesn't get too much attention. I was left pretty disappointed with this film because Ford's direction really doesn't bring too much life to the screenplay, which, to the director's credit, is all over the place. It starts off as a comedy but then we switch gears to a rather strange drama. Some of this might be due to Ford having the screenplay rewritten after MGM's The Big House stole some of his ideas. The final thirty minutes drag by pretty badly as this is the same time that the laughs stop. There's some funny stuff early on including one scene where the men are getting ready for bed, four to a cell, and they realize they only have three pillows. Tracy's film debut is a very good one and I was shocked to see that Tracy personality on full display at such an early time in his career. That street tough attitude mixed with his cocky side comes off very well here. I was also shocked at Bogart who certainly isn't playing what we'd come to see in the future. Here he's constantly smiling, getting pushed around and I guess you'd say he plays a real dork. He's actually very good here, which shocked me since some of his pre-fame roles feature him looking pretty silly. From what I read, Bogart and Ford hated one another after Bogart called the director "Jack" so this was sadly the only film they made together. The Fox DVD of this is in incredibly bad shape with some jumps in the print and cuts in the soundtrack.