This is one of a small subgenre of the prison film about convicts who are redeemed by developing their singing gift while in stir. ("Weary River" is another.) What's strange about this story is that until the movie is almost half over we're given no inkling that Jerry Davis (Dick Foran) can sing. Though I guess you wouldn't be surprised if you know the actor from his singing cowboy pictures.
Though Davis is framed for a murder he didn't commit, I found myself not feeling overly sympathetic towards his plight, since we've been shown that he's a bully with a violent temper who never hesitates to throw the first punch. So even if he was framed, it's not unthinkable that his recklessness and propensity for throwing sucker punches might've gotten someone killed. It's a major flaw in this movie that being wrongly sent to prison doesn't transform Davis, as we see with Jimmy Cagney and Spencer Tracy in other prison movies. He's a jerk even before he goes to prison.
In short, you'll never mistake this for WB prison classics like Each Dawn I Die or 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, but it's an amiable way to pass some time, especially if you like B movies of the period. It features kind of an all-star B movie cast, if such a thing is possible, with Foran, Dick Purcell, and John Litell. The cast also includes the always dependable Ward Bond, and in the stock role of the loyal girlfriend, June Travis, one of a legion of blandly pretty brunette second second line actresses of the era who are now all but forgotten. (She appeared in 30 movies in just three years and retired at 24). Funny how she just happens to get a job working for the hood who framed her boyfriend. As in their few scenes together he acts like a jerk towards her, quickly ditching her to hang our with some hoods and their molls at the beach, I'm not at all sure why she's so devoted to him. Veda Ann Borg, a character actress who's often a scene stealer, is wasted here in a "blink and you'll miss it" role.
Though Davis is framed for a murder he didn't commit, I found myself not feeling overly sympathetic towards his plight, since we've been shown that he's a bully with a violent temper who never hesitates to throw the first punch. So even if he was framed, it's not unthinkable that his recklessness and propensity for throwing sucker punches might've gotten someone killed. It's a major flaw in this movie that being wrongly sent to prison doesn't transform Davis, as we see with Jimmy Cagney and Spencer Tracy in other prison movies. He's a jerk even before he goes to prison.
In short, you'll never mistake this for WB prison classics like Each Dawn I Die or 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, but it's an amiable way to pass some time, especially if you like B movies of the period. It features kind of an all-star B movie cast, if such a thing is possible, with Foran, Dick Purcell, and John Litell. The cast also includes the always dependable Ward Bond, and in the stock role of the loyal girlfriend, June Travis, one of a legion of blandly pretty brunette second second line actresses of the era who are now all but forgotten. (She appeared in 30 movies in just three years and retired at 24). Funny how she just happens to get a job working for the hood who framed her boyfriend. As in their few scenes together he acts like a jerk towards her, quickly ditching her to hang our with some hoods and their molls at the beach, I'm not at all sure why she's so devoted to him. Veda Ann Borg, a character actress who's often a scene stealer, is wasted here in a "blink and you'll miss it" role.