State Penitentiary

State Penitentiary (1950)

** (out of 4)

Aircraft manufacturer Rodger Manners (Warner Baxter) is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to prison but when he learns that his wife is seeking a divorce and marrying a man he knows, he decides to break free and prove that he was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. STATE PENITENTIARY comes from producer Sam Katzman so that there should pretty much tell you what to expect. This low-budget movie has pretty much been forgotten over the years except to fans of Baxter because this here would sadly be his final film. It's always fun seeing Baxter at work but you can tell that he doesn't appear to be himself here. It seems pretty clear throughout the picture that he's walking very slowly and it just appears as if he hasn't any energy. This also effects his performance as the character just seems like it would have been better served with someone a tad bit younger and a bit more energetic. The supporting cast includes Onslow Stevens, Karin Booth and Robert Shayne but no one is really given much to work with. As with many films from this period, this one here features non-stop narration that pretty much tells us everything that's happening on the screen. The Manners character might be upset about something so we see him in his cell, mad of course, and then we have the narrator explaining to us that he's made. The film was obviously made on a very low-budget and this hurts things because we don't even get the escape sequence until the 60-minute mark, which isn't good considering the picture lasts just five-minutes more. The climax of the film happens way too fast to say the least. A note at the start of the picture tells us that the film was shot at a real prison, which I don't doubt but for some reason there's still a lot of stock footage used. STATE PENITERNIARY isn't a horrible movie but there's just not any energy, drama or tension to keep the viewer fully entertained.

Penitentiary starts with the narrator (Cleary) introducing the prison, and several of its most famous residents. It starts out sounding like a documentary, but we quickly see Roger Manners (Warner Baxter) entering the jail, having been convicted of some financial crime. He has the usual set of run-ins with other prisoners, who are testing him and giving him the run-around. Manners keeps his cool, and is kind of a lone wolf. To make things worse, his wife (Karin Booth) starts seeing "Stan" (Robert Shayne), who looks JUST like Manners, which is a little odd. They could be twins. Word about his wife gets back to Manners, and the other guys give him the business. Then he gets caught up in the various plans of the other prisoners, and things get all mixed up. Most of the story moves pretty slow... but it's not bad. Things pick up big-time in the last fifteen or twenty minutes. The story is pretty plain & simple, but there are worse ways to spend sixty six minutes... a Columbia shortie.

Story by Henry Helseth, who also wrote two other novels which were made into films; "Chair for Martin Rome" was made into Cry of the City, and "Un aller simple" became One Way Ticket. Directed by Lew Landers, who had acted in a couple of silents before directing films and a whole SLEW of TV series.

Warner Baxter gives a typically graceful performance in this, his last movie. The movie itself is no great shakes: pretty much the standard men in prison movie for a couple of decades. The efforts are enlivened by some typically fine cinematography by Ira Morgan (including some setting shots allegedly photographed at real prisons) and the issue of whether Baxter -- who uses his age and weariness to the performance's advantage -- is actually guilty of embezzling $400,000.

Baxter came from a show business family and had appeared in his first movie before World War One. An early Academy Award and canny choices had kept him a moderately successful minor star for twenty years. Most of the previous five years had been spent in the Crime Doctor series, but Columbia was shutting down its B series. It's good to see him go out in a real acting assignment.

I watched it because it is the last film starring Warner Baxter and also because the director is no one else than Lew Landers, this so prolific B movie maker. And I must admit that the result iis honorable enough to justify the watch, despite a predictable and weak ending. Warner Baxter's last gleaming would have deserved better in terms of ending, last picture, last image on screen. Not a bad film, so, with good suspense and action sequences. A prison film buff will enjoy it, but it's not BRUTE FORCE, THE LAST MILE nor RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 either. It's worth the watch if you are indulgent enough. It's a B picture, after all.