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20,000 Years In Sing Sing
''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. Plot Cocky Tommy Connors is sentenced for up 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 free Connors, but his attempt to bribe the warden to provide special treatment is met with disdain and failure. Connors makes trouble immediately, but the prolonged confinement in his cell begins to change his attitude. As the warden had predicted, Connors is gla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz (; born Manó Kaminer; from 1905 Mihály Kertész; ; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent. Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz's direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself was nominated five times ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drama Film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera, police crime drama, political drama, legal drama, historical drama, domestic drama, teen drama, and comedy drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods. To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict—emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis) characters. In this broader sense, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyle Talbot
Lyle Talbot (born Lisle Henderson, also credited Lysle Talbot; February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American stage, screen and television actor. His career in films spanned three decades, from 1931 to 1960, and he performed on a wide variety of television series from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. Among his notable roles on television was his portrayal of Ozzie Nelson's friend and neighbor Joe Randolph, a character he played for ten years on the ABC sitcom ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. Talbot began his film career under contract with Warner Bros. during the early years of the sound era. Ultimately, he appeared in more than 175 productions with various studios, first as a young matinee idol, then as the star of many B movies, and later as a character actor. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Byron
Arthur William Byron (April 3, 1872 – July 16, 1943) was an American actor who played a mixture of British and American roles in films. Early years Born in Brooklyn, Byron was the son of actors Kate Crehan and Oliver Doud Byron. He was a nephew of the stage actress Ada Rehan. Career Byron started his theatrical career in February 1889 at the age of 17 with his father's dramatic company. In 1939 he celebrated his 50 years in showbusiness. He appeared in more than 300 plays and played with stars like Maxine Elliott, Ethel Barrymore, John Gielgud, Katherine Cornell, Maude Adams and Minnie Maddern Fiske. He was a founder and one-time president of The Actors' Equity Association and a member of The Lambs and the Actor's fund of America. Byron appeared many times at the Lakewood Playhouse in Maine. Personal life and death Byron was married to Kathryn Keyes, and they had two daughters and a son. He died of a heart ailment, from which he suffered for some years, in Hollywo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ("being on death row"), even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. In the United States, after an individual is found guilty of a capital offense in states where execution is a legal penalty, the judge will give the jury the option of imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment unparoled. It is then up to the jury to decide whether to give the death sentence; this usually has to be a unanimous decision. If the jury agrees on death, the defendant will remain on death row during appeal and ''habeas corpus'' procedures, which may continue for several decades. Opponents of capital punishment claim that a prisoner's isolation and uncertainty over their fate constitute a form of psychological a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Chair
The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, conceived this execution method in 1881. It was developed over the next decade as a more humane alternative to conventional executions, particularly hanging. First used in 1890, the electric chair became a symbol of capital punishment in the United States. The electric chair was also used extensively in the Philippines. It was initially thought to cause death through cerebral damage, but it was scientifically established in 1899 that death primarily results from ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest. Despite its historical significance in American capital punishment, electric chair use has declined with the adoption of lethal injection which was perceived as more humane. While some states retain electrocution as a legal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining (village), New York, Ossining, New York, United States. It is about north of Midtown Manhattan on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 Prisoner, inmates as of 2007, and housed the Execution chamber#Locations, execution chamber for the State of New York for a period, with the final execution there occurring in 1963; instead Green Haven Correctional Facility had the execution chamber by the late 20th Century, before the total abolition of Capital punishment in New York (state), capital punishment in New York in 2007. The name "Sing Sing" derives from the Sintsink Native American tribe from whom the New York colony purchased the land in 1685, and was formerly the name of the village. In 1970, the prison's name was changed to Ossining Correctional Facility, but it reverted to its original ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat O'Brien (actor)
William Joseph Patrick O'Brien (November 11, 1899 – October 15, 1983) was an American film actor with more than 100 screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Ireland, Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press. One of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, he played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. He is especially well-remembered for his roles in ''Knute Rockne, All American'' (1940), ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), and ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959). He was frequently paired onscreen with Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood star and close friend James Cagney. O'Brien also appeared on stage and television. Early life O'Brien was born in 1899 to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All four of his grandparents had come from Ireland. The O'Briens were originally from County Cork. His grandfather, Patrick O'Brien, for whom he was named, was an archi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Sheridan
Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films ''San Quentin'' (1937), '' Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), '' They Drive by Night'' (1940), '' City for Conquest'' (1940), '' The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1942), ''Kings Row'' (1942), '' Nora Prentiss'' (1947), and '' I Was a Male War Bride'' (1949). Early life Clara Lou Sheridan was born in Denton, Texas, on February 21, 1915, the youngest of five children (Kitty, Pauline, Mabel, and George) of garage mechanic George W. Sheridan and Lula Stewart (née Warren). According to Sheridan, her father was a grandnephew of Civil War Union general Philip Sheridan. She was active in dramatics at Denton High School and at North Texas State Teachers College. She also sang with the college's stage band and played basketball on the North Texas women's basketball team. Then, in 1933, Sheridan won the prize of a bit part in an upcoming Param ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Garfield
John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle; March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theatre (New York), Group Theatre. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros.' stars. He received Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations for his performances in ''Four Daughters (1938 film), Four Daughters'' (1938) and ''Body and Soul (1947 film), Body and Soul'' (1947). Called to testify before the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he denied Communist Party USA, communist affiliation and refused to "name names", effectively ending his film career. Some have alleged that the stress of this persecution led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is acknowledged as a predecessor of such Method acting, Method actors as Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle On The Hudson
''Castle on the Hudson'' (UK title: ''Years Without Days'') is a 1940 American prison film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring John Garfield, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. The film was based on the book ''Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing'', written by Lewis E. Lawes, on whom the warden (played by O'Brien) in the film was based. ''Castle on the Hudson'' is a remake of the 1932 Spencer Tracy prison film '' 20,000 Years in Sing Sing'', also based on Lawes's book. Plot Tommy Gordon (John Garfield), a cocky, arrogant career thief, is nailed by New York City authorities after pulling a big heist. He is sentenced to a minimum seven years at the state prison in Ossining, aka Sing Sing, on the shores of the Hudson River. There, he meets prison warden Walter Long ( Pat O'Brien), to whom he takes an immediate dislike. It takes months, but Tommy finally settles into the dull routine of prison life. If there is one rule that the superstitious Tommy Gordon has always obeyed, it's "n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Warden
The warden ( US, Canada) or governor ( UK, Australia), also known as a superintendent (US, South Asia) or director (UK, New Zealand), is the official who is in charge of a prison. Name In the United States, Mexico, and Canada, warden is the most common title for an official in charge of a prison or jail. In some U.S. states including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, California, and Hawaii, the post may also be known as a superintendent. Some small county jails may be managed by the local sheriff or undersheriff. In the U.K. and Australia, the position is known as a governor. In New Zealand and private prisons in the U.K., the position is known as a director. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, the English-language title is a jail superintendent or just superintendent. The exact title varies depending on the type of prison. Duties The prison warden supervises all the operations within the prison. Prisons vary in size ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
