Antonius Block One of the biggest draws of this movie is that it features a couple of legends, Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis, a little bit before they hit it big. Tracy plays a big-time criminal who is imprisoned, and Davis is his girlfriend waiting for him on the outside. Both turn in good performances, with Tracy in particular playing the scenes in which he's called upon to be aggressive well. Partially filmed on location in Sing Sing, director Michael Curtiz does a good job of making use of the setting and varying his camera angles. I loved how he superimposed the number of years the convicts had served while they were walking around at the beginning and end of the film. As for the story, I have to say, it goes beyond plausibility at times relative to how respectfully the inmates are treated. Real life Sing Sing warden Lewis E. Lawes had creative control over the movie, and that may have played a role in that. I liked how there is a sense of honor from both the screen warden (Arthur Byron) and Tracy's character, even though they are on different sides of the law. I also liked the touching simplicity of some of the scenes on death row towards the end. It's not a great film, but it's certainly watchable, and good stuff.

st-shot Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis give some energized performances in this rather lean story line about a hot tempered con who who attains rehabilitation through execution. There's a decent botched prison break but as films about the joint go 20,0000 Years in Sing Sing is short but hard time. Swaggering Tommy Connors (Spencer Tracy) has been given a stretch in Sing Sing but he doesn't plan on staying there long or playing by their rules. His recalcitrance is rewarded by a stay in solitary which eventually change his tune and gains the trust of the warden, too much perhaps.Director Michael Curtiz gets Sing Sing started at a pretty rapid pace developing Connors and his situation and transition rapidly but with no where to go the film bogs down in a tepid battle of wills between Connors and the warden.Tracy's Connors has a volatile combustibility while squeeze Davis suffers and defers in loyal compliment. They both pair up nicely in pre-star roles together but Sing Sing's song is hard to swallow.

Neil Doyle Warner Bros. began their grim social dramas in the '30s and 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING is a good companion piece to their other blockbuster drama I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG.If this one had been made ten years later, it would have starred Humphrey Bogart (a much more convincing tough guy prisoner than Tracy), and Ann Sheridan would have played the gangster's moll. Here the roles are essayed by SPENCER TRACY and BETTE DAVIS, both of them effective although not as well cast as Bogart and Sheridan would have been.Tracy is the swaggering bully who thinks life owes him something, even in prison, and only after some hardships behind prison walls does he begin to respond to the humanity of a good warden. All of the prison scenes are well done and probably are a true reflection of what life behind bars was like during this time period. LYLE TALBOT has a good supporting role as a rebellious prisoner bent on making a break and LOUIS CALHERN is fine as Joe Finn, a con man who gets his comeuppance from Tracy and Davis in a well staged fight scene.Good, grim social drama has all the usual melodramatic overtones of the '30s dramas but still packs a punch even though it's a time capsule of prison life then. There is virtually no background music throughout unless montages are being shown, something that would change drastically in just a few more years.

bkoganbing It's unfortunate that the one and only teaming of Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis was early in their careers when neither really had a chance to show what they were capable of.Tracy was under contract to Fox at this time and Fox loaned him to Warner Brothers and at that time Tracy was playing all kinds of mug parts. Here he does a role that James Cagney must have turned down over at Warner Brothers.Tracy is a gangster who's freshly arrived at Sing Sing doing a five to thirty year stretch for some unnamed offense. He's accompanied by Louis Calhern his crooked politician attorney. While Tracy's being processed in, Calhern is upstairs trying to bribe warden Arthur Byron. It doesn't work and Tracy begins life at Sing Sing on the wrong foot.Gradually things warm up between the two of them, Tracy and Byron and Byron gives Tracy a 24 hour furlough from Sing Sing on the honor system. While in New York Tracy and Calhern mix it up, because Calhern's now on the make for Tracy's girlfriend Bette Davis.Now one could argue that this was an example of progressive thinking on the warden's part. Stuff like that just wasn't done back in the day, in fact some "progressive" release policies are what kept Michael Dukakis from becoming president. Not even players of the caliber of Tracy and Davis could make me swallow this one. I will say that Louis Calhern is the best one in the film, he is one sleazebag for the ages.In fact 20,000 Years in Sing Sing only gets as high a rating as it does because of Tracy and Davis. Good thing Davis fought for better roles and Tracy's potential was only really explored after he got to MGM.