YOU CAN’T GET AWAY WITH MURDER

US, 1939, 79 minutes, Black and white.
Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, John Litel, Henry Travers.
Directed by Lewis Seiler.

You Can’t Get Away With Murder was originally a play, staged in 1937. One of its co-authors was himself a prison warden.

The film is a star vehicle for Humphrey Bogart as he was emerging from supporting roles to being a lead. This film was made between The Oklahoma Kid and Dark Victory. Here he plays an unremittingly evil minor thug. Gale Page who had a career at Warner Bros from the late 30s to the early 40s is the sister of Billy Halop, one of the Dead- End Kids who was brought from Broadway to star in the original film and continued in the series. There is a good supporting role from Henry Travers, as Pop the Sing Sing Librarian, not all that different from his Clarence the Angel in It’s a Wonderful Life or from his sympathetic role in Mrs Miniver.

The film was directed by Lewis Seiler, a veteran director from the early 20s in the silent era to the late 50s. The film is very much in the Warner Bros vein of the tough gangster films with a focus on inmates in Sing Sing as well as those in Death Row approaching execution in the electric chair.

1. The impact of the film? Small, B-budget, short running time? Yet an effective prison film? Issue of capital punishment and the innocent?

2. The Warner Bros production values, black and white photography, Sing Sing, New York City? Musical score?

3. The title, the application of the title to Frank Wilson? To Fred Burke? To Johnny Stone?

4. The introduction to Madge and Johnny, brother and sister? Madge and her work, her friends, her relationship with Fred, the planned marriage? Her concern for Johnny, mixing with the wrong crowd, needing a job? Fred and his new job, his invitation to Madge, the transfer to Boston, the job for Johnny? Everything going well?

5. Johnny, his age, angers, insecurities? His hero-worship of Frank Wilson? Going on the robbery at the service station, getting away with it? The money from Frank? His taking Fred’s service gun, giving it to Frank? In the car, Frank and the robbery, the victim setting off the alarm, Frank shooting him, stealing the jewels? Planting the jewels and the gun back in Fred’s room?

6. Johnny and Frank being arrested? For the holdup? Their going to Sing Sing?

7. The background of Sing Sing, the visuals, the prisoners, the ethos of life there? Frank and his trying to be a big man? Johnny and his dependence on Frank? The other inmates, especially Tom Scappa and his dominance?

8. Fred Burke arrested, condemned to death, losing the appeal, on Death Row? His meeting with Madge? His being calm, urging her to have a life? The encounters with Johnny? The attorney coming, the interrogation of Johnny, his refusing to tell the truth, his fear? Madge and her upset? No hope for Fred?

9. Pop, in the library? Johnny and his working in the shoe factory, the connections with Frank and Scappa? Pop and his influence, Johnny and his surliness, yet respect, typing, good at the job? The prisoner with the betting about the electric chair, Johnny and his antagonism? Pop trying to help Johnny? Johnny’s resistance? Pop, his ailment? His final attempt to help Johnny, the medicine, Frank coming in? His going to the infirmary?

10. The escape plan, Scappa and his control, the other prisoners who wanted to leave? The chapel, the escape, over the wall, Frank’s intention to shoot Johnny? In the caravan, the siege, Frank shooting Johnny, surrendering, his lie, Johnny telling the truth? The episode with the note in Pop’s cell, Frank finding it and taking it?

11. The truth, Johnny and his wounds, hospital, dying? Thanking Pop? Fred and his being freed, with Madge? Frank and his imprisonment?

12. The popularity of this style of hard-bitten prison film in the 1930s? Now?