Courtney Terrett Movies

In this remake of the classic prison story 20,000 Years in Sing-Sing, John Garfield plays Tommy Gordon, a jewel thief who has been sent up the river for a minimum of 25 years. Tommy isn't especially worried about prison, as he's convinced his well-connected friends will help him get out before long. But Tommy learns the hard way his friends aren't as helpful as he imagined, and he regrets causing so much trouble for reform-minded warden Walter Long (Pat O'Brien), who he comes to regard as a friend and ally. Tommy's girlfriend, Kay Manners (Ann Sheridan), is desperate to get him out of prison and enlists the help of shifty lawyer Ed Crowley (Jerome Cowan); however, when Crowley tries to extract a payment from Kay that has nothing to do with money, she puts up a fight and ends up seriously hurt. Long shows his sympathetic side by granting Tommy a pass to visit Kay, but when he arrives at her home, he discovers Crowley has also arrived to see her. A scuffle ensues, and Kay shoots Crowley. Rather than see her go to jail, Tommy takes the blame, but soon goes on the lam, betraying Long's trust. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sent to Sing Sing prison, influential crook Spencer Tracy is unregenerate and refuses to adhere to the rules. While in solitary confinement, Tracy reconsiders his attitude. Thanks to the correctional facility's compassionate warden (Arthur Byron), Tracy becomes a model prisoner, even refusing to participate in a jailbreak. The warden sets up a special program permitting selected prisoners a degree of freedom and even suggests allowing an occasional furlough. When Tracy's girl friend (Bette Davis) is hurt in an auto accident, he is given a 24 hour pass to visit her. It's a test case--if Tracy doesn't return, the warden will be discredited and replaced. While on the "outside," Tracy learns that his old rival (Louis Calhern) was responsible for his girl's injuries. Davis shoots the rival, who in turn fingers Tracy as the one responsible; the convict thus risks execution upon returning to the arms of the law. Based on the book by real-life Sing Sing warden Lewis E. Lawes, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing was remade in 1940 as Castle on the Hudson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alfred E. Green directs the political satire The Dark Horse, starring Bette Davis early in her career. The progressive party nominates moronic candidate Zachary Hicks (Guy Kibbee) for governor. Party secretary Kay Russell (Davis) wants to hire her sweetheart, Hal Blake (Warren William), for campaign manager, even though he is in jail for not paying his alimony. Impressed with his slick behavior, the campaign committee bails him out of jail and he goes to work. He teaches Hicks to give cryptic answers to journalists and makes him memorize a speech by Abraham Lincoln. During the big debate, conservative opponent William A. Underwood (Berton Churchill) quotes Lincoln and Hicks calls him a plagiarist. Eventually, Blake's ex-wife, Maybelle (Vivienne Osborne) shows up demanding her alimony payments. The climactic scene involves a set-up at a rural mountain cabin and confusing marital arrangements. Also starring Frank McHugh as aide Joe and Sam Hardy as the conservative manager Mr. Black. Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck received co-writing credits for the screenplay under the pseudonymn Melville Crossman. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Inspired in part by the sensational Snyder-Gray murder case (which was also the source of The Postman Always Rings Twice), The Famous Ferguson Case casts an unflattering light on the journalist "feeding frenzy" attending such crimes. A wealthy banker named Ferguson is found murdered, and his bound-and-gagged wife (Vivienne Osborne) is rescued by the police. It appears at first that the murderer was an unknown burglar, but the cops think otherwise, hypothesizing that Mrs. Ferguson actually conspired with her lover Judd Brooks (Leon Waycoff, aka Leon Ames) to murder her husband. The small town where the murder occurred suddenly becomes the center of a media circus, with reporters from all over the country grasping and clawing for a "hot scoop." At first, hard-boiled girl reporter Maizie Dickson (Joan Blondell) is no better than the rest of the journalist jackals, but she soon becomes disillusioned at the manner in which the truth has been crushed to earth by her insensitive brethren. She also has her heart broken when her husband, likewise a reporter, uses his assignment as an excuse to sleep around. The relentless media blitz eventually drives Mrs. Ferguson (whose guilt or innocence is never completely established) to kill herself and also ruins the lives of everyone around her. Once considered a relic of its period, The Famous Ferguson Case grows more timely with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman trying to live down her past finds it coming back to haunt her in this drama. Steve Pelton (Owen Moore) is the leader of a gang of confidence men and petty criminals who have set up a base of operations in a large house they all share. One of Pelton's roommates is his girlfriend, Janet Gordon (Joan Bennett), who is convinced Pelton will propose to her someday. However, when Pelton and his mob are raided by the police, Gordon ends up in jail with the rest of them. With the help of kindly cop Dan Emmett (Douglas Cosgrove), Gordon gets an early release, and she meets Stuart Elliot (Hardie Albright), a wealthy and sophisticated man about town. Elliot falls for Gordon and they soon marry, but her happiness is shattered when Pelton is released and decides to blackmail Gordon, threatening to tell Elliot about her scandalous past unless she does his bidding. Hush Money also features George Raft and Myrna Loy in supporting roles as members of Pelton's gang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide