The Big House (1930)
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The Big House Movie Review
The Big House is a 1930 crime film directed by George Hill and starring Chester Morris and Wallace Beery. It’s such a groundbreaking film.
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“And remember, this prison does not give a man a yellow streak,
but if he has one, it brings it out“
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The film explores the terrible state of prisons during the time of the film’s release as they were overcrowded and poorly managed. It also dramatizes the prison riots that happened the year prior to the film’s release. I found the story at times slow, but for the most part very engaging, well crafted and dramatic.
The Big House is a very influential film as it’s basically an early prison flick that influenced almost all of the prison movies we know and love decades after its release. It has everything an archaic prison movie has: a tough guy who runs the place, a newly arrived weaker guy, a romance through letters, poor conditions and fights in the cells and eventually the riots and escapes.
I definitely found the romance somewhat underutilized and honestly the entire third act may be the highlight for most people, but to me it was overly action oriented and bombastic. I preferred the first half of the film which was very engaging, so well written and featuring terrific dialogue.
Chester Morris here is actually much better than he was in ‘Alibi’ as he gave a very charismatic, realistic performance. Lewis Stone and Robert Montgomery are also good, but the standout actor of course is Wallace Beery who steals the show here as this tough guy who also has a softer side to him. That dichotomy in his personality and in his actions is the most interesting thing in the film.
The Big House is very well directed, well scripted and I do find its dialogue particularly effective as it’s grounded in reality in how the prisoners talk. I found the bonding scenes as well as every conversation between the main characters the highlights here. The sound is also quite strong for such an early film.
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I would actually say that all four of the film’s Oscar nominations are very much deserved as Beery is terrific and the film is well written and well recorded. It isn’t among the very best films of the year, but it still is a very admirable early genre film.
The Big House is a very influential early prison flick as it features most of the archetypal plot points we’d come to know very well by now. The first half is much more interesting than the second half, but this Oscar-nominated film is quite well scripted, recorded and particularly well acted with the standout being Wallace Beery who portrays the most interesting character here. It’s clunky at times, but it succeeds thanks in large part to its strong dialogue, emotion and character interactions.
