20,000 Years in Sing Sing *** (1932, Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Louis Calhern) – Classic Movie Review 7440

Director Michael Curtiz’s excellent, tough-edged, vintage 1933 prison escape drama 20,000 Years in Sing Sing sees Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis crackle in their only ever screen pairing. Tracy was at Fox and then MGM and Davis was at Warner Bros (she joined the studio in 1932), and never the twain did meet again on film.

In Warner Bros’ film noir-style black and white adaptation of the non-fiction book by Warden Lewis E Lawes, Tracy and Davis star as the trouble-making hoodlum and convict Tommy Connors and his girlfriend Fay Wilson.

Connors is sentenced is sentenced from five to 30 years for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in the notorious jail Sing Sing, believing his associate Joe Finn (Louis Calhern) will use his contacts and influence to get him out, but bribing the Warden fails, and soon he gets 90 days in solitary and no parole.

The 25-year-old Bette Davis.

The Warden lets Connors visit Fay, badly injured in a car accident, but she kills mobster Finn during a fight and Connors is blamed for the death. Connors is forced to reconsider his freedom. Should he give himself up?

The well-paired stars make this short (it is just 78 minutes), sharp and fast-paced drama worthwhile and director Curtiz keeps the tension building. Arthur Byron enjoys a good role as the Warden Paul Long.

Also in the cast are Lyle Talbot as Bud Saunders, Warren Hymer as Hype, Grant Mitchell as Tester of Convicts’ IQ, Sheila Terry, Hardie Albright, Lionel Atwill, Spencer Charters, G Pat Collins, Lucille Collins, James Donlan, Rockliffe Fellows, Sam Godfrey, Oscar Hendrian, Arthur Hoyt, Harold Huber, William Le Maire, John Marston, Edward McNamara, Frank O’Connor, Sam Rice, Phil Tead, Nella Walker, Clarence Wilson and Harry Wilson.

20,000 Years in Sing Sing is directed byMichael Curtiz, runs 78 minutes, is made by First National, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Wilson Mizner, Brown Holmes and Robert Lord, based on the non-fiction book by Warden Lewis E Lawes, is shot in black and white by Barney McGill, is produced by Darryl F Zanuck and Robert Lord, and is scored by Bernhard Kaun.

Weirdly, it was the Christmas release treat in America, out on 24 December 1932.

Davis reflected: ‘Spencer and I were both born on April 5. One of my great dreams in later years was that we could find a really great script to do together. What a marvellous actor he was.’ They did play together again in a radio version of her movie Dark Victory in 1940. Davis was eight years younger than Tracy.

Tracy, who was then under contract to Fox, was lent out to Warner Bros for the Connors role intended for James Cagney, who quit in one of his many disputes with studio boss Jack L Warner.

Lewis E Lawes was the warden of Sing Sing Penitentiary, the maximum security prison in Ossining, New York, from 1920 to 1941.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7440

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