The Big House (1930)

87 min · Destiny, Drama, Romance Film, Social Drama, Thriller, crime film, drama film, prison film, romance film

Popularity4/5

12-month trendExpand

12-month trend

Monthly article views

Sep1.2kOct1.3kNov1.3kDec1.7kJan2.7kFeb3.1kMar2.4kApr1.6kMay1.5kJun1.3kJul2.7kAug2.1k

2025-09 to 2026-08

Directors

George W. Hill

Cast

Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Leila Hyams, George F. Marion, J. C. Nugent, Karl Dane, DeWitt Jennings, Matthew Betz, Claire McDowell, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Tom Kennedy, Tom Wilson, Eddie Foyer, Roscoe Ates, Fletcher Norton

The story

thumb|left|thumbtime=15|The Big House (1930) Kent (Robert Montgomery), a drunk driver who carelessly kills a man, is sentenced to ten years for manslaughter. In an overcrowded prison designed for 1800 and actually holding 3000, he is placed in a cell with Butch (Wallace Beery) and Morgan (Chester Morris), the two leaders of the inmates. Butch is alternately menacing and friendly, while Morgan tries to help out the frightened, inexperienced youngster, but Kent rebuffs his overtures.

Catalogue themes and tags

1920s, 1929, 20th Century, Alcohol, Armor, Auflehnung, Betrug, Blows, Bookshop, Botanist, Bullet, Chapel, Con, Court, Cowardliness, Cruelty, Drunk, Egoism, Entlassung, Ermordung, Escape attempt, Fist fight, Flucht aus dem Gefängnis, Gefängnis, Gewalt, Gunfight, Hero, Heroism, Homicide, Hope, Hospital, Imprisonment, Informant, Informer, Isolation, Jail Guard, Killing, Machinegun, March, Massaker, Messer, Murderer, Penitentiary, Planned Murder, Police, Prison Warden, Prison riot, Raub, Riot, Robbery, Sentenced, Severity, Shootout, Shot Dead, Snitch, Sträfling, Supervisor, Tränengas, Verbrecherin, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, Verkäuferin, Zelle, bruder-schwester, erstochen, evil, kakerlake, singen, verrat, Crime Fiction, Drama, Black-and-white

Genres

Destiny, Drama, Romance Film, Social Drama, Thriller, crime film, drama film, prison film, romance film

Find trailer on YouTube ↗ Plot source & revision Wikipedia Wikidata Open Media Database Permalink

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

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