After young Robert Graham commits a murder while drunk and defending his girlfriend, he is prosecuted by ambitious Mark Brady and sentenced to 10 years. Six years later, Brady becomes the prison warden and offers the beleaguered Robert a job as his chauffeur. Robert cleans up his act, but, on the eve of his pardon, his cellmate drags him back into the world of violence, and he faces a difficult choice that could return him to prison.
Acting
Walter Huston's volcanic presence as the warden who built his own cage.
Direction
Hawks' first sound film shows his ruthless efficiency already formed.
Writing
Dialogue so tight it squeaks — the Code hadn't neutered Hollywood yet.
Director
Howard Hawks
Walter Huston
Mark Brady
Phillips Holmes
Robert Graham
Constance Cummings
Mary Brady
Boris Karloff
Ned Galloway
DeWitt Jennings
Yard Captain Gleason
Mary Doran
Gertrude Williams
Ethel Wales
Katie Ryan
Clark Marshall
Runch
Arthur Hoyt
Leonard Nettleford
John St. Polis
Dr. Rinewulf
Paul Porcasi
Tony Spelvin
Otto Hoffman
Jim Fales
John Sheehan
'Mac' McManus
Andy Devine
Cluck (uncredited)
Bob Kortman
Red, the Convict Barber (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Karloff's breakout role as Galloway came the same year as Frankenstein; Hawks fought Universal to cast him. The studio wanted a 'prettier' convict.
Shot during the brief 1930-34 window before the Hays Code enforcement, the film's bleak prison conditions and sympathetic criminal protagonist would be impossible just three years later.
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