Sunday, January 31, 2010

Prison Mutiny/ You Can't Beat the Law (1943), Phil Rosen.

Stand on this dot for twelve hours, prisoner!

Boy, I felt like I was standing on a dot for twelve hours, and this only runs 61 minutes!  Johnny Gray is a carefree guy who gets into scrapes (i.e., speeding tickets) which of course means he's probably also a hardened criminal.  He gets ten years for robbery in a mix-up but when he's eventually pardoned he decides it might be fun to be a prison warden!  Huh?!  Definitely a sequence of highly unlikely situations made worse by terrible acting and dialogue as clunky and wooden as a trebuchet.  Here's a snippet:

Prison Guard:  There are some things you better find out before you get a lot of ideas.  You're here because you committed a crime.  You broke a law that society saw fit to enact for its own protection.  

Johnny:  Somebody better pass a law to protect me from society.  I was framed!  What do you think about that?

Prison Guard:  I don't think it's very original.  Every man in here will tell you that about himself.  You're here to do time.  To pay a debt.  We're here to see that you do.


ZZZzzzzz!   I'd like to arrest Phil Rosen and everyone involved for wasting my time!

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