''Paroled from the Big House'' is a 1938 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Elmer Clifton Elmer Clifton (March 14, 1890 – October 15, 1949) was an American writer, director and actor from the early silent days. A collaborator of D.W. Griffith, he appeared in ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) and ''Intolerance'' (1916) before giving ...

and starring

Jean Carmen Jean Carmen (April 7, 1913 – August 26, 1993) was an American film, stage, and radio actress. She sometimes went by the stage name Julia Thayer. In addition to her appearances in various films throughout the 1930s, Carmen starred on Broadway i ...

, Ted Adams and

George Eldredge George Edwin Eldredge (September 10, 1898 – March 12, 1977) was an American actor who appeared in over 180 movies during a career that stretched from the 1930s to the early 1960s. He also had a prolific television career during the 1950 ...

. It was produced as a

second feature A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

Poverty Row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did n ...

.Pitts p.196 It was later reissued under the

alternative title An alternative title is a media sales device most prominently used in film distribution. Books and films are commonly released under a different title when they are screened or sold in a different country. This can vary from small change to the t ...

''Main Street Girl''.

Synopsis

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

opposes the leniency of the

parole board A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdiction ...

. In particular a cop killer, 'Slicker' Nixon is released from

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

and immediately sets up a new racket. Pat Mallory's father is a store owner who is killed by Nixon's gang and seeks revenge by plotting to kill the gangster.

Cast

as Pat Mallory * Ted Adams as H.S. 'Slicker' Nixon *

as 'Red' Herron *

Milburn Stone Hugh Milburn Stone (July 5, 1904 – June 12, 1980) was an American actor, best known for his role as "Doc" (Dr. Galen Adams) on the CBS Western series ''Gunsmoke''. Early life Stone was born in Burrton, Kansas, to Herbert Stone and the forme ...

as Commissioner Downey *

Walter Anthony Walter Anthony (February 13, 1872 in Stockton, CA – May 1, 1945 in Hollywood, CA) was a screenplay, titles and documentary film writer. Before Walter started writing in films he was a dramatic and musical critic for ''The San Francisco Call''. ...

as Joe 'Killer' Britt * Ole Olsen as Torchy *

Gwen Lee Gwen Lee (born Gwendolyn Lepinski; November 12, 1904 – August 20, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Lee began her career as a model before being discovered and signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She was typically cast in supporting ...

as Binnie Bell * Earl Douglas as Huke 'The Dude' Curtis * Eleanor DeVan as Rita * Edward Kaye as 'Gunner' Garson * Joe Devlin as Jed Cross *

Allan Cavan Allan Cavan (March 25, 1880 – January 19, 1941) was an American film actor. He appeared in 145 films between 1917 and 1941. Cavan was the son of Mrs. Averila Cavan, and he had a brother, Carl. He began working on films with Sam Goldwyn S ...

as Chief of Police *

Kit Guard Kit Guard (born Christen Klitgaard May 5, 1894 - July 18, 1961) was a Danish-American actor whose career started in the 1920s. Guard left his birthplace of Hals, Denmark, around the turn of the 20th century, one of five brothers to do so. He m ...

as Thug

References

Bibliography

* Pitts, Michael R. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940''. McFarland & Company, 2005.

External links

* 1938 films 1938 crime films 1930s English-language films American crime films Films directed by Elmer Clifton American black-and-white films Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton 1930s American films {{1930s-crime-film-stub