20,000 YEARS IN SING SING
Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Louis Calhern.
Directed by Michael Curtiz.
20,000 years in Sing Sing seems a very long long time, especially in such a brief and fast-paced film as this. The device is to show at the beginning – and then dramatically at the end – the prisoners lining up and a succession of numbers coming across the screen to indicate the length of their sentences.
This is a very good prison film, with a star turn from Spencer Tracy doing something of James Cagney role. He portrays a brash young criminal who thinks he will have an easy time in prison with the help of his backers in New York. However, there is a very strong warden, played with dignity by Arthur Byron, who is strict and is able to teach the prisoner some lessons. When his girlfriend, played by Bette Davis, is injured in an accident, the warden allows his prisoner to go to visit her on compassionate leave with the promise that he will return. While he is on leave, he gets into a fight with a crooked lawyer, an early role for Louis Calhern, and Bette Davis shoots him. He returns to prison but is condemned to death for the murder, not allowing Bette Davis to take the blame, and goes to the electric chair.
Spencer Tracy is interesting in the central role, not like the roles he was to have in later films, winning two Oscars five and six years later for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Bette Davis was a quickly rising star and won an Oscar two years later for Dangerous.
The film is expertly directed by Michael Curtiz, later an Oscar-winner for directing Casablanca. He shows an elegant style, especially for a film of 1932.
1. An impressive film of 1932? Pre-code? Issues of crime in the cities, crime and punishment, corruption and the law, relationships and sexuality?
2. The title, the focus on the prison in Sing Sing, the train going along the Hudson, the town of Ossining, the realism in filming the prison, the exteriors, the yards, the cells?
3. The title and the device of having the prisoners and the numbers of their sentences coming on screen, and the recapitulation at the end as Connors went to the electric chair?
4. Connors, early 30s, Spencer Tracy’s screen presence and performance, on the train, with the journalists, his bravado, Joe Finn and his support? The arrival at Sing Sing, the police, the celebrity, going inside, his becoming just one of the prisoners?
5. The warden, his personality, stern, just? His reputation? The confrontation with Connors, explaining equality, laying down the regulations? The issue of the uniform, Connors complaining about it being too large, taking it off in a scuffle with the police, not wanting to wear a uniform and the warden allowing this, in the yard in his underwear? Connors and his not wanting to work, the warden allowing this, Connors sitting in his cell for months, wanting to get out and work, the vigour in working?
6. Joe Finn, his interview with the warden, offering money for Connors? His double-dealing, with Fay, the money, her accident, his coming to visit, the bribe, the fight with Connors, Fay shooting him?
7. Connors in prison, his change of attitude, with fellow prisoners? The test and his aptitude for his work, playing dumb, spilling the ink, having to sit in it, his intelligence? The scene with the graduate from the University and his intelligence?
8. The situation with Fay, the warden putting Connors on his honour, his promising to come back, meeting Fay, her being ill, the fight with Joe Finn, his death? Connors wanting to escape the country, Fay giving him the money, his arranging the boat? His return? His return?
9. His coming back, the warden and the adverse press, offering his resignation, the justifying of his compassion policy?
10. The arrest, the court case, Connors found guilty, on death row? The visit of Fay and her wanting to take the blame? The warden believing her? The visit of the priest, playing handball with Connors, wanting to do something spiritual, the prayer with him at the end?
11. In a period of gangsters and films about gangsters, a message film about bravado and about not flouting the law?
