''Laughter in Hell'' is a 1933 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

drama film directed by

Edward L. Cahn Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American film director. Early life and education Cahn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He went to work at Universal Pictures in 1917 while still a student at UCLA. Career ...

and starring

Pat O'Brien Pat O'Brien may refer to: Politicians * Pat O'Brien (Canadian politician) (born 1948), member of the Canadian House of Commons *Pat O'Brien (Irish politician) (c. 1847–1917), Irish Nationalist MP in the United Kingdom Parliament Others *Pat O'Br ...

. The film's title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many Pre-Code films. Adapted from the 1932 novel of the same name by Jim Tully, the film was inspired in part by ''

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang ''I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime-drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted man on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. It was released on November 10, 1932. The f ...

'' and was part of a series of films depicting men in

chain gang A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was no ...

s following the success of that film. O'Brien plays a railroad engineer who kills his wife and her lover in a jealous rage and is sent to prison.Laughter in Hell
tcm.com, accessed October 12, 2010.Doherty. pg 167 The movie received a mixed review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' upon its release. Hall, Mordaunt
Laughter in Hell (1933) - A Chain-Gang Melodrama.
''The New York Times'', January 2, 1933, accessed October 12, 2010. Although long considered lost, the film was recently preserved and was screened at the

American Cinematheque The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms. The Cinematheque was created in 1981 as ...

in Hollywood, CA in October 2012. The dead man's brother ends up being the warden of the prison and subjects O'Brien's character to significant abuse. O'Brien and several other characters revolt, killing the warden and escaping from the prison. The film drew controversy for its

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

scene where several black men were hanged. Contrary to reports, only blacks were hung in this scene, though the actual executions occurred off-camera (we see instead reaction shots of the guards and other prisoners). The ''

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

'' (an African American weekly newspaper) film critic praised the scene for being courageous enough to depict the atrocities that were occurring in some southern states.

Plot

O'Brien plays an Irish mine worker, Barney Slaney. Later Barney gets a job as a fireman on the local train for an engineer named Mileaway. He gets married, but finds his wife having an affair with Grover Perkins, a childhood nemesis. Barney loses control and kills them both. He turns himself in and receives a life sentence of hard labor. Barney quickly finds out that the brother of the man he killed, Ed Perkins, will be in charge of his chain gang, and the brother bullies him repeatedly. While the prisoners dig graves, Barney knocks Ed unconscious and drops him into one of the open graves. He then escapes during the ensuing mayhem, in which the warden is killed. He breaks out of the police dragnet, and hides at a farm which recently had a pestilence infection. He meets a woman named Lorraine, and they run away together.

Cast

as Barney Slaney *Tommy Conlon as Barney as a boy *

Gloria Stuart Gloria Frances Stuart (born Gloria Stewart; July 4, 1910 September 26, 2010) was an American actress, visual artist, and activist. She was known for her roles in Pre-Code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose ...

as Lorraine *

Berton Churchill Berton Churchill (December 9, 1876 – October 10, 1940) was a Canadian stage and film actor. Early years Churchill was born in Toronto, Ontario. After his family moved to New York City, he graduated from high school there, studied law a ...

as Mike Slaney *

Merna Kennedy Merna Kennedy (born Maude Kahler; September 7, 1908 – December 20, 1944) was an American actress of the late silent era and the transitional period into talkies. Career She was born in Kankakee, one of two children to Maud (''née'' Reed) a ...

as MaryBell Evans *

Douglass Dumbrille Douglass Rupert Dumbrille (October 13, 1889 – April 2, 1974) was a Canadian actor who appeared regularly in films from the early 1930s. Life and career Douglass Dumbrille ( ) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. As a young man, he was employed ...

as Ed Perkins *

Dick Winslow Richard Winslow (March 25, 1915 – February 7, 1991) was an American film actor, mostly in supporting roles. He died of complications of diabetes on February 7, 1991, in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California California is a U.S. stat ...

as Ed Perkins as a boy *Arthur Vinton as Grover Perkins * Tom Brown as Barton *

Lew Kelly Lew Kelly (August 24, 1879 – June 10, 1944) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1928 and 1944. He was born Louis Kelly in St. Louis, Missouri, and died in Los Angeles, California. Selected f ...

as Mileaway *

Clarence Muse Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a film, 1929's ''Hearts in Dixie''. He acted for ...

as Abraham Jackson *

Noel Madison Noel Madison (born Noel Nathaniel Moscovitch; April 30, 1897 – January 6, 1975) was an American character actor in the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in 75 films, often as a gangster. Born in New York City, Madison was the son of actor M ...

as Brownfield *

Tom Ricketts Thomas B. Ricketts (15 January 1853 – 19 January 1939) was an English-born American stage and film actor and director who was a pioneer in the film industry. He portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the first American film adaptation of ''A Christm ...

as Judge * William H. Turner as I.N. Tree

Production

The railroad scenes were filmed on the

Sierra Railroad The Sierra Railroad Corporation is a privately owned common carrier. Its Sierra Northern Railway freight division handles all freight operations for all branches owned by the Sierra Railroad. The company's Mendocino Railway group operates th ...

Tuolumne County, California Tuolumne County (), officially the County of Tuolumne, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,620. The county seat and only incorporated city is Sonora. Tuolumne County comprises the ...

Pre-Code uncensored scenes

A controversial lynching scene where several black men were hanged, gained headlines after the film was released. The ''

Motion Picture Herald The ''Motion Picture Herald'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972.Anthony Slide, ed. (1985)''International Film, Radio, and Television Journals'' Greenwood Press. p. 242. It was replaced by the ''QP Herald ...

'' expressed concern that the events depicted could be very difficult for some African Americans to watch. Writing in ''New Age'' (an African American weekly newspaper) Vere E. Johns praised the producers for depicting the scene and in so doing, publicizing the atrocities that were happening in some southern states. Johns also disagreed with the initial reports in the ''Herald'' which stated that only blacks were lynched, Johns stated (erroneously) that both blacks and whites were lynched in the picture. Although Universal Pictures released ''Laughter in Hell'' with the lynching scene intact, like many American films of the time the film was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. Several censorship boards including New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Chicago removed the lynching scene, allowing only indications that a hanging was about to take place.

Reception

Mordaunt Hall, writing for ''The New York Times'' praised the acting, the characterizations, action sequences, and some of the banter, but was not impressed with the storyline.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *Doherty, Thomas Patrick. ''Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934''. New York: Columbia University Press 1999.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laughter In Hell 1933 crime drama films 1930s prison films 1933 films Adultery in films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American prison drama films 1930s English-language films Films based on American novels Films directed by Edward L. Cahn Films set in Tennessee 1930s rediscovered films Universal Pictures films Rediscovered American films 1930s American films