IMDb plot summary: A convict falls in love with his new cellmate's sister, only to become embroiled in a planned break-out which is certain to have lethal consequences.
Directed by George W. Hill. Starring Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, and Lewis Stone.
The Big House is, I have just learned, one of the first prison movies. As such, I shouldn't be surprised that it's full of familiar tropes, although of course they weren't that at the time. The story follows a man convicted of manslaughter and his desperation to get out, sometimes at the expense of his cellmates. The film puts an interesting spin on it, humanizing the other prisoners, frankly much more than I would have expected for the time. That being said, what went on to work over and over and over again doesn't work any better for me the first time the formula was invented. I find myself watching all the different characters and their motivations but not ending up caring about any of them. There was an interesting section in the middle where a character we think is the antagonist becomes sort of the central character of the film for a while, which was an interesting diversion, but then it went back to the same story that I was expecting. If this is your genre, this is definitely one worth watching, if for nothing else than for the history of the genre, but if the formula has never worked for you, this early iteration of it probably will do no better.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Big House < The Keep
The Big House > War of the Buttons (1994)
The Big House < Flypaper
The Big House < Fame (1980)
The Big House > The Da Vinci Code
The Big House > Tiramisu
The Big House < The Preacher's Wife
The Big House > The Deadly Affair
The Big House > Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Big House < Marvin's Room
The Big House < Rio Bravo
The Big House > Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Final spot: #2467 out of 3541, or 30%.
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