The Big House

Name: The Big House
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: June 14, 1930
Duration: 87 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Chester Morris, DeWitt Jennings, George F. Marion, J.C. Nugent, Karl Dane

1930

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Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Critic Reviews

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The Big House

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Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: June 14, 1930 | Passed

Starring: Chester Morris, DeWitt Jennings, George F. Marion, J.C. Nugent, Karl Dane, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone, Matthew Betz, Robert Montgomery, Wallace Beery

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.

Director: George W. Hill and Ward Wing

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: Passed

Runtime: 87 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Grimly realistic and often brutal, it exposes the inhuman conditions and paranoia that deepen criminal resolve among inmates. Read full review

Mike Clark

The granddaddy of prison pics opens with a lecture on overcrowding and ends with a high mortality rate, in which Chester Morris, a bald Wallace Beery and stoolie Robert Montgomery (Elizabeth's father) are players. [24 Jun 1994, p.3D]

Don Druker

The prototype for every saga of the slammer to come, starring Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, and Robert Montgomery. Beery is particularly good in his toughest tough-guy role. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

As Butch, Morgan and Kent, Wallace Beery, Chester Morris and Robert Montgomery are a great trio in ‘the big house’, where each is serving a stretch for homicide, forgery and manslaughter, respectively. Prison life on the half-shell is plainly exposed. Read full review

Noel Murray

The Big House is an MGM film, and while it takes on the problem of prison overcrowding, at times it’s more like a window into a secret society, with its own codes and concerns. It’s an outsized, abstracted version of everyday life circa 1930. Read full review

Mordaunt Hall

It is a film that sweeps swiftly along, with some conspicuously fine episodes and others where the humor is not a little forced. Read full review

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