Buried Alive (1939)

Pretty Good

Absolutely Fantastic

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is a z grade snooze fest, one of the worst prison movies I've ever seen, which really gives PRC the name of perfectly rotten cinema. It surrounds the trustee of a prison who is framed on a murder charge and faces the death penalty. The convoluted plot keeps falling through the invisible sieve, so many holes and nothing coming out of it. This is extremely difficult to get through with Wilcox giving too moody of a performance to sympathize with and Beverly Roberts, once a Warner Brothers leading lady, absolutely lifeless. This is especially surprising to be so dull with cult director Victor Halperin at the helm. Even the intense prison scenes fall flat, and a seemingly serious car accident is badly staged with unrealistic details surrounding the crash.

Let's see now. A central figure is the guy who throws the switch at electrocutions. There are three guys in love with a woman who works as a nurse at the prison hospital. One of the prisoners gets to dress up in a suit and drive people around. The warden spends all of his time trying to help this guy. The security is non-existent. The nurse falls in love with the convict rather than the three guys who are in love with her. If prisons were run like this, they would be empty. Everyone would have walked away. My favorite character is the executioner. He has the shakes but can't seem to quit the job. About once a month he puts the juice to someone. He really wants to buy a farm and raise chickens. Oh, there's also a chaplain who is in love with this woman. Then there is an evil reporter who frames the poor schmoe. Does this sound like something you'd like to see?

"A prison trustee is soon to be released from prison when he ends up stopping a bar brawl involving one of the prison guards. After some unkind press for him on the bar brawl, the convict is turned down for his early parole. Will his love for the prison nurse help him in getting past all of the people trying to keep him in prison and looking at the electric chair?" according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis."Buried Alive" is a potentially interesting look at the electric chair era, and the public servants who organize the executions. But, the main story, involving handsome Robert Wilcox (as Johnny Martin) doesn't end up serving the film's morality question; at least, not the one introduced in the opening, by twitchy switch-puller George Pembroke (as Ernie Matthews).A "love story" between Mr. Wilcox and beautiful nurse Beverly Roberts (as Joan Wright) isn't terribly exciting. The book Wilcox describes, while driving, is John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" - which makes Wilcox "George" and cell-mate Don Rowan (as Big Billy) "Lennie". In the 1929s, prisoners did a lot more reading (and motion pictures were sometimes too talky).*** Buried Alive (11/6/39) Victor Halperin ~ Robert Wilcox, Beverly Roberts, George Pembroke

I just read a wonderful interview with Beverly Roberts on the "Midnight Palace" site and thought I would look up her films. I didn't know anything about her but I managed to find this film which was just okay.Directed by Victor Halperin of "White Zombie" fame it is the story of a prison executioner whose job is sending him around the bend. After enduring some taunts at a local bar, a brawl starts and Johnny, the Warden's prisoner chauffeur gets hurt, helping him out. As a result Johnny's parole is delayed. Johnny's cell mate is a man called "Big Billy". Early in the film Johnny describes their friendship as similar to one in a book he had read (it wasn't named but it was "Of Mice and Men").Big Billy is like a big kid - and he remembers all the guards who have treated him harshly. When he attacks and kills a guard - Johnny comes to his rescue but too late as Big Billy is shot while trying to escape. Once again Johnny has to prove his innocence.Beverly Roberts has a pivotal role as the nurse, Joan, that Johnny loves and is determined to go straight for. This was Robert's last film for a decade - the big mystery is what happened to her in those intervening years??? She was no less talented than Wendy Barrie, who had a bigger career.Dave O'Brien (minus his toupee) is one of the participants in the brawl and later in the film as a witness to an execution.