The Big House (1930) on Netflix
Sentenced to ten years for manslaughter after a drunken driving accident, Kent Marlowe enters an overcrowded prison. His cellmates are Butch and Morgan, who lead the other prisoners.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Kent Marlowe is convicted of manslaughter after a drunken driving accident and receives a ten-year sentence. The prison he enters was built for 1,800 men and holds 3,000. He is put in a cell with Morgan and Butch, the two men who lead the other prisoners. Butch, a career criminal who rules the cellblock, swings between friendliness and menace. Morgan tries to look out for the frightened young newcomer, but Kent rejects his offers of help. Kent keeps a photograph of his sister Anne, who runs a bookstore. When Butch leads a protest over the prison food, he is sent to solitary confinement.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Big House (1930)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lon Chaney was originally chosen to play Butch, the violent career criminal who rules the cellblock, but the cancer that killed him in August 1930 had advanced too far, and the part went to Wallace Beery.
- Wallace Beery had been dropped by Paramount when sound arrived even though he had passed a successful voice test; after The Big House became a hit and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, he became the world's highest-paid actor within two years.
- The story of The Big House was inspired by a spate of prison riots in 1929 and the federal investigation that resulted from them.
- Douglas Shearer won the first Academy Award for Sound for The Big House, and Frances Marion won that year's Best Writing Achievement for its story and dialogue.
