Mutiny in the Big House (1939)

Lack of good storyline.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Best movie ever!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Although some of the scenes have some real poignancy to them in the end Mutiny In The Big House ends up a melodramatic mess with every prison cliché in the book thrown into the plot.The two leads and two opposite poles of good and evil are Charles Bickford as the prison chaplain and Barton MacLane as the toughest con in the joint. Parts that both are well cast in, especially MacLane.The main part of the story line involves young Dennis Moore sent to prison for forging a $10.00 check for his mother's medicine. Sounds like he didn't have a good lawyer if indeed it was his first offense. Over Bickford's objections Moore is assigned as cell-mate to MacLane who tries to wise him up in prison ways. Bickford of course sees something redeemable in Moore and the conflict begins.Best scenes are with old time institutionalized con George Cleveland. When he's released he can't adjust to life on the outside. Long before James Whitmore perfected the part in Shawshank Redemption, Cleveland gives a touching performance and Bickford actually goes to bat for him to get him sent back to prison.The climax includes a prison break and what normally happens, happens in Mutiny In The Big House. Charles Bickford was in a much better prison film Brute Force and a lot of these same situations were handled better in that classic film.You can't pass up a film with Bickford and MacLane in classic parts, but don't expect all that much from Mutiny In The Big House.

An original story by Martin Mooney based on a true story & a tribute to prison chaplain Father Patrick O'Neil who risked his life to save innocent men in the Canon City Colorado prison riot in October 3rd 1929. In which 7 guards & 5 prison inmates were killed. And was awarded the Carnegie Medal for his extraordinary heroic act. As the heading reads after the opening credits & also states it's a fictionalized story for the movie.The prison chaplain is Father Joe Collins convincingly portrayed by Charles Bickford. Dennis Moore plays Johnny Gates sent to prison for 14 years for forging a bad check for 10 bucks because of hard times. Father Joe thinks Johnny got a raw deal & is a decent man & doesn't deserve the harsh sentence he received & tries to encourage him not to be corrupted by bad cell mates. He gets put into a cell with the prison big shot Red Manson played by Barton MacLane who specialized in playing bad guys & gangsters & is planning a prison break. Usually in supporting roles but occasionally in leading roles such as "Prison Break" (1938) & "Captain Scarface" (1953). Here he's top billed with Charles Bickford. This low budget film is quite well done & it's quality is evident & it has a good solid cast giving very effective performances. Prison movies of the 30's showed how grim & harsh & depressing prison life can be like the inmate on death row in his last hour before walking his last mile to be hanged. And there was usually singing inmates like Singing Jim (Richard Austin) who hauntingly sings nonstop. The message is very clear being in prison is hell. Charley Foy is also one of the inmates in charge of the prison show which the warden pulls the plug on for suspecting a break will take place. He gives a great tap dance act with his clicking heels & snapping fingers. The film also shows what happens to old timers like Convict "Dad" Schultz (George Cleveland) that are institutionalized & after being released & returning to the outside world with no direction & nothing to look forward to & cannot adjust to society & become insane & committed to a mental hospital only to want to be sent back to the big house because prison has sadly become his "home". After the prison show is canceled the audience has no clue as to how the crash out will be staged & where. We are kept in the dark not knowing when & where & how only we know it'll happen. Which was typical in 1930's prison flicks. Leaving the viewer in suspense so when it does go down BANG ! You're in for a ride leading to an explosive climax. Worth watching if you like prison movies. A nice discovery & a hidden treasure !

Although Martin Mooney based this story on real events and a real priest who worked in the prison system, I couldn't help but think that this film seemed a bit too sappy and hard to believe. Maybe you'll like it more than I did--I just see it as a heavy-handed time-passer.Dennis Moore plays a convict who was given an unusually harsh sentence for his first offense. For writing a bad check for $10, he was given 1-14 years in the penitentiary--and the priest in the institution (Charles Bickford) feels sorry for him and wants to keep this nice guy from becoming a career criminal. However, the guy is assigned to bunk with a real hard-core jerk (Baron MacLane--who made a career out of playing such roles). Can the good priest keep Moore's character on the straight and narrow or will he be manipulated by his bunkie and live a life of crime? Overall, it's not a terrible film despite its low budget. But it also is handled poorly--coming off as too saccharine to be taken very seriously.

Ostensibly based upon journalist Martin Mooney's own experience while in jail, this crisply directed work from a fictional story by Mooney is a tribute for Father Patrick O'Neil of the Order Of St. Benedict, because of his heroic efforts to quell a deadly prison riot before it could worsen (after 12 fatalities), at Canon City, Colorado in October of 1929, for which O'Neil was awarded the Carnegie Medal For Heroism. Young Johnny Gates (Dennis Moore) is assigned to a state penitentiary to serve a stretch of one to fourteen years to atone for forging a ten dollar check meant to assist his indigent mother, and he naturally is bitter and also susceptible to the plotting of his cellmate Red Manson (Barton Maclane) who is organizing a widespread escape attempt. The prison chaplain, Father Joe (Charles Bickford) tries to cultivate a friendship with Johnny, the priest believing that he can help the youth in adjusting to his new surroundings, but Gates is immune to the clergyman's cordiality and, although he accepts a job, through Father Joe's influence, in the prison library he does so due to the urging of Red who intends to use marked passages in library books as code among the conspiring inmates. In several scenes during which Father Joe berates the penal institution system and parole board for their inflexibility when dealing with convicts, some of his arguments are quite strongly advanced. As the breakout try nears, the largely cardboard characters that populate the unabashedly sentimental scenario are placed in expectedly hackneyed circumstances, although the briskly moving affair wins over a viewer because of the general mood of sincerity that is expressed from the screenplay. Bickford is very effective with his playing as Father Joe, granitic as ever and displaying perfect timing, while Dennis Moore, who seldom gains a featured role during his career, contributes a strongly focused and consistent turn as sullen Johnny Gates. Commendably released upon DVD by Alpha Video with indifferent but acceptable quality, remastering would be helpful to those desirous of adding to their personal collections what is one of the more effective films produced for the Men In Prison genre, so popular during the Great Depression.