The Big House (1930)

(On Cable TV, May 2019) There’s something almost comforting in reaching ninety years in the past and finding a film not so different from what we’d see on-screen right now. So it is that The Big House is a quasi-prototypical prison movie, already dealing in well-worn tropes barely two years after the introduction of sound in cinema. The technical credentials are occasionally crude, but there’s no denying a certain cinematic ambition in the use of miniatures, camera movements and overall direction—the prison cafeteria scenes may or may not have influenced White Heat, but they’re handled with a grace that goes beyond flat static shots and into something definitely more daring. No wonder that this manly muscular action drama was nominated for an early Best Picture Academy Award. Story-wise, there isn’t much here, what with its “innocent” hero (who still killed someone while driving drunk—something almost unforgivable today) being a victim of hardened criminals and tough prison warden. The ending prison riot sequence is definitely ambitious, though, what with army tanks getting involved in putting it down. The acting is strictly early-thirties stuff (with Chester Morris and Wallace Beery doing what they knew best), still a bit influenced by the silent-movie methods. Still, for all of its familiar bluntness, there’s a certain charm to The Big House, and definitely a viewing pleasure. Further proof that well-executed tales can be timeless, even when they’re extremely familiar.