The Big House

More of MGM’s massive interior sets, derived partly from writer Frances Marion’s visit to San Quentin, our first trip to the yard with new inmate Kent (Robert Montgomery), with the boys playing what looks like a standard trick, DeWitt Jennings the head screw, in The Big House, 1930.

Director George Hill capturing more of the remarkable scale of the MGM sets in another famous scene, in the mess hall, Butch (Wallace Beery) sowing discontent, the warden (Lewis Stone) intervening, and new inmate Kent (Robert Montgomery) timidly foiling a plot, in The Big House, 1930.

Rumblings of Monty Python in Frances Marion's script, as Kent (Robert Montgomery) meets cell-mates Butch (Wallace Beery) and Morgan (Chester Morris), in The Big House, 1930, directed by Marion's husband George Hill.

Dramatic opening, featuring a model prison, into which Kent (Robert Mongtomery) is incarcerated in convincing manner, from MGM's The Big House , 1930, also starring Wallace Beery and Chester Morris.