20,000 Years in Sing Sing
- December 24, 1932 (1932-12-24)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film set in Sing Sing Penitentiary, the maximum security prison in Ossining, New York, starring Spencer Tracy as an inmate and Bette Davis as his girlfriend. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the nonfiction book, Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, written by Lewis E. Lawes, the warden of Sing Sing from 1920 to 1941.
The film was remade by First National Pictures as Castle on the Hudson in 1940, starring John Garfield, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien.[2]
Plot
Cocky Tommy Connors is sentenced for 5-to-30 years in Sing Sing for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. His associate, Joe Finn, promises to use his contacts and influence to get him freed long before that, but his attempt to bribe the warden to provide special treatment is met with disdain and failure.
Connors makes trouble immediately, but several months confined to his cell changes his attitude somewhat. As the warden had predicted, Connors is glad to do some honest work on the rockpile after his enforced inactivity.
Nonetheless, his determination to break out is unshaken. Bud Saunders, a highly educated fellow prisoner desperate to be with his pregnant wife, recruits him and Hype for a complicated escape attempt. By chance, however, it is scheduled for a Saturday, which Connors superstitiously regards as always unlucky for him. He backs out, forcing Saunders to take another volunteer. The warden is tipped off and, although two guards are killed, the escape is foiled. Trapped, Saunders jumps to his death. His two accomplices are captured and returned to their cells.
Meanwhile, Connors's girlfriend, Fay Wilson, visits him regularly in prison since his trial. On one visit, she admits that she has become friendly with and close to Finn to encourage him to help Connors, but Connors tells her that she is only giving Finn a reason to keep him locked in jail.
The warden shows Connors a telegram that says that Wilson was injured in a car accident; there is no hope for her. He gives Connors a 24-hour leave to see her; Connors promises to return, no matter what. When he sees Wilson, he learns that Finn was responsible for her injuries. He takes a gun from a drawer, but Wilson persuades him to give her the pistol. Finn shows up, however, expecting her to sign a statement exonerating him, in exchange for $5,000 that he intended to give to Connors. Connors attacks him. When it seems that Finn is about to kill her boyfriend, Wilson shoots him. Connors flees, taking the gun with him; Wilson secretly slips the money into his pocket. Before he dies, Finn names Connors as his killer.
The warden is lambasted in the newspapers for letting Connors go. Just when he is about to sign a letter of resignation, Connors walks in. He is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair, despite a recovered Wilson's testimony that she killed Finn. Connors comforts her before being taken to death row.
Cast
- Spencer Tracy as Tommy Connors
- Bette Davis as Fay Wilson
- Arthur Byron as the Warden, Paul Long
- Louis Calhern as Joe Finn
- Lyle Talbot as Bud Saunders
- Warren Hymer as Hype
- Grant Mitchell as Tester of Convicts' IQ
Production
Development
Bette Davis enjoyed working with Spencer Tracy, and had actually idolized him. The two wanted to do another movie together, but never had the opportunity to do so, although they did appear together again on a radio version of Dark Victory in 1940.
Tracy, under contract to 20th Century Fox, was lent to Warner Bros. for the film. It was originally intended for James Cagney, but Cagney was having one of his many misunderstandings with Jack L. Warner at the time.[citation needed]
Lawes, who wrote the book that is the basis of the movie, was the warden of Sing Sing at the time of the filming, and permitted the crew to film scenes inside the prison, including mob scenes. The film was shot in 30 days and had a budget of $215,000.[3]
Box office
According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $504,000 in the U.S., and $431,000 in other countries.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 13 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ "20,000 Years in Sing Sing". www.tcm.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
External links
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing at IMDb
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing at the TCM Movie Database
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing at AllMovie
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- The Last Bohemian (1912)
- Today and Tomorrow (1912)
- Captive Souls (1913)
- My Husband's Getting Married (1913)
- The Exile (1914)
- The Borrowed Babies (1914)
- The Princess in a Nightrobe (1914)
- Prisoner of the Night (1914)
- Bánk Bán (1914)
- Golddigger (1914)
- Seven of Spades (1916)
- The Strength of the Fatherland (1916)
- The Karthauzer (1916)
- The Black Rainbow (1916)
- The Wolf (1916)
- The Medic (1916)
- Mr. Doctor (1916)
- Master Zoard (1917)
- The Red Samson (1917)
- The Last Dawn (1917)
- Spring in Winter (1917)
- Tartar Invasion (1917)
- Secret of St. Job Forest (1917)
- Nobody's Son (1917)
- The Charlatan (1917)
- A Penny's History (1917)
- The Fishing Bell (1917)
- Peace's Road (1917)
- Jean the Tenant (1917)
- Earth's Man (1917)
- The Colonel (1918)
- The Merry Widow (1918)
- Magic Waltz (1918)
- A skorpió I. (1918)
- The Devil (1918)
- Lulu (1918)
- Lu, the Coquette (1918)
- Júdás (1918)
- The Ugly Boy (1918)
- Alraune (1918)
- 99-es számú bérkocsi (1918)
- The Sunflower Woman (1918)
- Liliom (1919)
- The Lady with the Black Gloves (1919)
- Boccaccio (1920)
- The Star of Damascus (1920)
- The Scourge of God (1920)
- Mrs. Tutti Frutti (1921)
- Good and Evil (1921)
- Mrs. Dane's Confession (1921)
- Labyrinth of Horror (1921)
- Sodom and Gomorrah (1922)
- Young Medardus (1923)
- Avalanche (1923)
- Nameless (1923)
- A Deadly Game (1924)
- General Babka (1924)
- Harun al Raschid (1924)
- The Moon of Israel (1924)
- Red Heels (1925)
- Cab No. 13 (1926)
- The Golden Butterfly (1926)
- The Third Degree (1926)
- A Million Bid (1927)
- The Desired Woman (1927)
- Good Time Charley (1927)
- Tenderloin (1928)
- Noah's Ark (1928)
- Glad Rag Doll (1929)
- Madonna of Avenue A (1929)
- The Gamblers (1929)
- Hearts in Exile (1929)
- Mammy (1930)
- Under a Texas Moon (1930)
- The Matrimonial Bed (1930)
- Bright Lights (1930)
- A Soldier's Plaything (1930)
- River's End (1930)
- Demon of the Sea (1931)
- God's Gift to Women (1931)
- The Mad Genius (1931)
- The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932)
- Alias the Doctor (1932)
- The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
- Doctor X (1932)
- The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
- Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
- The Keyhole (1933)
- Private Detective 62 (1933)
- Goodbye Again (1933)
- The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
- Female (1933)
- Mandalay (1934)
- Jimmy the Gent (1934)
- The Key (1934)
- British Agent (1934)
- The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
- Black Fury (1935)
- Front Page Woman (1935)
- Little Big Shot (1935)
- Captain Blood (1935)
- The Walking Dead (1936)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
- Stolen Holiday (1937)
- Mountain Justice (1937)
- Kid Galahad (1937)
- The Perfect Specimen (1937)
- Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Four's a Crowd (1938)
- Four Daughters (1938)
- Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
- Dodge City (1939)
- Daughters Courageous (1939)
- The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
- Four Wives (1939)
- Virginia City (1940)
- The Sea Hawk (1940)
- Santa Fe Trail (1940)
- The Sea Wolf (1941)
- Dive Bomber (1941)
- Captains of the Clouds (1942)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
- Casablanca (1942)
- Mission to Moscow (1943)
- This Is the Army (1943)
- Passage to Marseille (1944)
- Janie (1944)
- Roughly Speaking (1945)
- Mildred Pierce (1945)
- Night and Day (1946)
- Life with Father (1946)
- The Unsuspected (1947)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948)
- My Dream Is Yours (1949)
- Flamingo Road (1949)
- The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)
- Young Man with a Horn (1950)
- Bright Leaf (1950)
- The Breaking Point (1950)
- Force of Arms (1951)
- Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951)
- I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)
- The Story of Will Rogers (1952)
- The Jazz Singer (1952)
- Trouble Along the Way (1953)
- The Boy from Oklahoma (1954)
- The Egyptian (1954)
- White Christmas (1954)
- We're No Angels (1955)
- The Scarlet Hour (1956)
- The Vagabond King (1956)
- The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956)
- The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
- The Proud Rebel (1958)
- King Creole (1958)
- The Hangman (1959)
- The Man in the Net (1959)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
- A Breath of Scandal (1960)
- Francis of Assisi (1961)
- The Comancheros (1961)
- Jön az öcsém (1919)
- Sons of Liberty (1939)
- Bright Lights (1935)