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Up the River
USA 1930
produced by William Fox for Fox Film
directed by John Ford
starring Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, William Collier sr, Joan Marie Lawes, Louise Mackintosh, Morgan Wallace, Edythe Chapman, Anthea Henley, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Ward Bond, Bob Burns, Harvey Clark, Mike Donlin, Noel Francis, Elizabeth Keating, Helen Keating, Richard Keene, Sharon Lynn, George MacFarlane, Wilbur Mack, Goodee Montgomery, Steve Pendleton, Pat Somerset, John Swor, Mildred Vincent, Johnnie Walker, Adele Windsor, Carol Wines
story by Maurine Dallas Watkins, screenplay by William Collier sr, John Ford, music by James F. Hanley, Joseph McCarthy
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Steve (Humphrey Bogart) is a rich kid who has been sent to prison, but
obscures that fact from his family by having his friends sending his mum
(Edythe Chapman) letters from him from China. He is a model prisoner, too,
and it looks as if he's paroled any time now. Then he meets Judy (Claire
Luce), an inmate of the neighbouring female ward, and only seperated by a
barred gate, the two gradually fall in love with one another. Frosby
(Morgan Wallace), Judy's partner in an embezzling racket, promises to get
her out if only she comes to work for him again, but she prefers to serve
her sentence (a mere five more months) and then marry Steve. Frosby
doesn't like that, so he does a little research on Steve ... and when
Steve finally is released on parole, Frosby has already put up shop in
Steve's hometown and now blackmails him into helping him squeezing the
money out of wealthy townfolks. Steve's cellmates, smart Saint Louis
(Spencer Tracy) and dim-witted Dan (Warren Hymer) learn about this, break
out of jail, arrive at Steve's just in time to see Frosby walk away with
Steve's mum's bonds, steal them from Frosby to return them to Steve, and
return to prison just in time to see Judy being released and for the
baseball game against a rival prison, in which Saint Louis is supposed to
be the star pitcher. A rather light-footed prison movie that
mixes comedy and drama rather effortlessly and sees leads Spencer Tracy,
Humphrey Bogart and Warren Hymer play off one another rather nicely ...
and yet, Up the River just isn't a very good film. Basically, the
film never manages to find its dramatic center - prison seems to be
nothing more than a really pleasant country club, one where you can even
fall in love. Also the character of Frosby never comes into being, and his
come-uppance is rather boringly handled. Plus, the ending is a bit too
happy and lacks any form of final twist that might have done the movie
good. That's not to say the film is a total trainwreck, as mentioned
above, it does have its highlights, but it's by no means especially
memorable.
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