The prison movie was a surefire box office bet when 6000 Enemies opened in 1939, following in the footsteps established in 1930 with the hardboiled convict hit The Big House. With Hollywood now reined in by the Production Code, the idea of setting a drama behind bars meant that the requisite macho thrills demanded by moviegoers could be delivered with enough moral value to offset all that violence and corruption.

Here the formula gets a bit of a twist for the story of Steve Donegan (Walter Pidgeon), an all-too-efficient district attorney framed on charges of bribery. Sent behind bars, he finds himself among the titular enemies, a huge sum of whom he put in the slammer in the first place; there he must prove himself through violent confrontations, dodge prison riots, and unlock the reason he's there, which seems to be tied to another framed innocent, Anne (Rita Johnson).

The primary modern claim to fame for this brief (just over one hour) programmer is that central fight scene, which many have noticed as the primary inspiration for a similar sequence in Cool Hand Luke (1967). The film also marked the third of five teamings with Pidgeon and Johnson, who had first appeared together in My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937) and also teamed up for Man-Proof (1938) (from which Johnson was excised from the final cut), Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939), and Stronger Than Desire (1939).

As was customary at the time, 6000 Enemies was mounted very quickly with a screenplay by Bertram Millhauser turned into MGM on March 15, 1939. By June 9 the film was in theaters, competing for the action-hungry audiences Warner Bros. had skillfully cultivated throughout the decade.

Of course, the main attraction here is Walter Pidgeon, who also headlined as an attorney the same year in Society Lawyer. With well over a hundred films to his credit by the time he retired in 1977, the Canadian-born actor went under contract to MGM in 1937 and remained there until 1956, with occasional loan outs most notably including How Green Was My Valley (1941).

A classically trained singer, Pidgeon studied both law and acting (ironically enough) at the University of New Brunswick and got his start on the Broadway stage in the mid-1920s. It wasn't until the 1940s that he really came into his own as an actor with multiple Oscar nominations and a string of popular appearances with Greer Garson, ultimately totaling nine films including such classics as Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1942), and Blossoms in the Dust (1941). His post-Garson work continued to thrive, including roles in the sci-fi favorites Forbidden Planet (1956) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) as well as the musical classic Funny Girl (1968). Fans of those films will no doubt be startled to see Pidgeon here in a tougher role than usual, slugging his way to respectability among throngs of tough-as-nails convicts; however, that versatility is what earned him a permanent spot in Hollywood and inspired performances still powerful and effective today.

By Nathaniel Thompson