Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

mark.waltz There is a haunting scene here where a prisoner on death row getting ready to go to the gallows breaks down in the arms of priest Charles Bickford, revealing his fear and being unsure how to pray. He admits that he was guilty of murdering his wife out of jealousy, but in that last moment of anger after her death, tried to call her back but couldn't. I've heard ministers say that even at the moment of death, somebody with the greatest sins on their soul can come to Christ and be forgiven and atoned. This movie may be schmaltzy in many ways, but it also opens up the opportunity for discussion on the issue of salvation. It wasn't just a fear of going to hell in this man's heart, but his regret for a human emotion he had no control over, and one which ruined his life. Bickford, playing a man of God who was once a child of the streets, has a gruff exterior, but his heart is big, especially as he deals with the troubled inmates of a very rough prison where a new warden turns everything upside down, leading to a very violent riot. This Monogram film is about two reels longer than most of their films, with great detail put into the individual characterizations, and crafty in how it develops the events leading up to this mutiny. The aggressor in that mutiny is inmate Barton MacLane who senses the fear and innocence of a new young inmate (Dennis Moore) and cleverly uses him as a key into events which will lead up to this riot and attempt to escape. Bickford, sensing that MacLane is up to no good in regards to Moore, refuses to help him to get a job in the prison library, and MacLane becomes resentful towards him because of that. Bickford also aids the aging inmate George Cleveland who has been in prison for years and unable to deal with the life that he finds when he is freed. Little aspects like this makes "Mutiny in the Big House" an above average second feature, partially based upon alleged real events and people, and not at all cloying or overly preachy. Bickford and MacLane, practically interchangeable in their gruff personalities, are excellent in their roles, and the conclusion is thrilling, reminding me of the stand-off at the tail end of "High Noon".

JohnHowardReid Better than you might expect from a Monogram production, "Mutiny in the Big House" has a really involving script by Robert Hardy Andrews (based on an original story by Martin Mooney that was itself based on true events) that gains much from the sincere portrayals by the principals, particularly Charles Bickford as Father Joe and Barton MacLane as Red. Even William Nigh's direction has unusual vigor and the film's budget is more expansive than the usual Monogram effort. True, there are stock shots, but they are integrated with more skill than usual. It's obvious that someone's heart (presumably producer Grant Withers – this was one of six films the prolific actor produced for Monogram) – was in this one!

bkoganbing Although some of the scenes have some real poignancy to them in the end Mutiny In The Big House ends up a melodramatic mess with every prison cliché in the book thrown into the plot.The two leads and two opposite poles of good and evil are Charles Bickford as the prison chaplain and Barton MacLane as the toughest con in the joint. Parts that both are well cast in, especially MacLane.The main part of the story line involves young Dennis Moore sent to prison for forging a $10.00 check for his mother's medicine. Sounds like he didn't have a good lawyer if indeed it was his first offense. Over Bickford's objections Moore is assigned as cell-mate to MacLane who tries to wise him up in prison ways. Bickford of course sees something redeemable in Moore and the conflict begins.Best scenes are with old time institutionalized con George Cleveland. When he's released he can't adjust to life on the outside. Long before James Whitmore perfected the part in Shawshank Redemption, Cleveland gives a touching performance and Bickford actually goes to bat for him to get him sent back to prison.The climax includes a prison break and what normally happens, happens in Mutiny In The Big House. Charles Bickford was in a much better prison film Brute Force and a lot of these same situations were handled better in that classic film.You can't pass up a film with Bickford and MacLane in classic parts, but don't expect all that much from Mutiny In The Big House.

rsoonsa Ostensibly based upon journalist Martin Mooney's own experience while in jail, this crisply directed work from a fictional story by Mooney is a tribute for Father Patrick O'Neil of the Order Of St. Benedict, because of his heroic efforts to quell a deadly prison riot before it could worsen (after 12 fatalities), at Canon City, Colorado in October of 1929, for which O'Neil was awarded the Carnegie Medal For Heroism. Young Johnny Gates (Dennis Moore) is assigned to a state penitentiary to serve a stretch of one to fourteen years to atone for forging a ten dollar check meant to assist his indigent mother, and he naturally is bitter and also susceptible to the plotting of his cellmate Red Manson (Barton Maclane) who is organizing a widespread escape attempt. The prison chaplain, Father Joe (Charles Bickford) tries to cultivate a friendship with Johnny, the priest believing that he can help the youth in adjusting to his new surroundings, but Gates is immune to the clergyman's cordiality and, although he accepts a job, through Father Joe's influence, in the prison library he does so due to the urging of Red who intends to use marked passages in library books as code among the conspiring inmates. In several scenes during which Father Joe berates the penal institution system and parole board for their inflexibility when dealing with convicts, some of his arguments are quite strongly advanced. As the breakout try nears, the largely cardboard characters that populate the unabashedly sentimental scenario are placed in expectedly hackneyed circumstances, although the briskly moving affair wins over a viewer because of the general mood of sincerity that is expressed from the screenplay. Bickford is very effective with his playing as Father Joe, granitic as ever and displaying perfect timing, while Dennis Moore, who seldom gains a featured role during his career, contributes a strongly focused and consistent turn as sullen Johnny Gates. Commendably released upon DVD by Alpha Video with indifferent but acceptable quality, remastering would be helpful to those desirous of adding to their personal collections what is one of the more effective films produced for the Men In Prison genre, so popular during the Great Depression.