The Big House
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: June 14, 1930 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Grimly realistic and often brutal, it exposes the inhuman conditions and paranoia that deepen criminal resolve among inmates. Read full review
75
Chicago ReaderDon 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
75
USA TodayMike 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]
70
The DissolveNoel 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
70
The New York TimesMordaunt 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
70
VarietyStaff (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
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