Redwarmin
This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
kidboots
....only because legal ramifications and accusations held up Warner's "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". If there was anyone who could write a realistic crime drama, that person was Rowland Young for the reason being his association with gangsters ("Bugsy" Siegel etc). He came up through the ranks, first as a gag writer for Reginald Denny, then working on a Hoot Gibson western. He had written an unproduced play, "A Handful of Clouds" which in 1930 was turned into "Doorway to Hell", the first of the three ground breaking gangster films. Within the year Young was directing and even though he only directed three films they were all highly distinctive. "Hell's Highway" his second was an expose of prison labour camps which happened to be released a few months in advance of the better publicized "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". The gangster movie vogue was almost finished. It was being pushed to one side by new novelties such as reporters, gossip columnists and the next "big thing" the social conscience movie.This movie definitely doesn't have the brutality and rawness of the far more ambitious "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". It is not until young punk Johnny Ellis (Tom Brown in another winning performance) is recruited to the chain gang that you actually find out why his big brother "Duke" (Richard Dix) is there. So for a good part of the film "Duke" doesn't have the audience sympathy because you don't know anything about him. As in each of Young's directed films there is the odd character or two - in this one C. Henry Gordon as the sadistic guard, Blacksnake Skinner, who plays the violin while the camp burns to the ground, Charles Middleton ("Ming the Merciless") as a bigamous prisoner who bamboozles the stupid guards with his "ability" to see into the future and Stanley Fields playing against type as an undercover guard!!!!The public are up in arms about the callous treatment of chain gang prisoners, especially a method of punishment known as a "sweat box" - a small shed of corrugated iron in which the prisoners are manacled and left, often dying before guards remember they are there!!! So far so good but there is just not enough raw emotion in the characters for me. Toward the end Middleton's character says "Prison's a picnic - compared to what I have back home" and that seems to sum it up well!! The night Johnny arrives at the camp happens to be the night "Duke" is planning to break out. Seeing Johnny he decides to stay behind to look out for his kid brother but when his brother is put into the "sweat box" "Duke" makes a deal with the guards -in return for better treatment for his brother (which includes a cushy job in the office) he agrees to keep the men in order. Aside from a few grumbles from the other prisoners "Duke" isn't on the receiving end of any harsh treatment (imagine what would have happened to Paul Muni if he had tried that in his movie). He is stripped down to be flogged but when the guard sees a Marine tattoo on his back he suddenly doesn't have the heart. There is a scene in which Field's accuses a guard named Popeye of recruiting vicious locals as prison guards but it is not expanded upon. On paper it may have looked like a telling role that Dix could put across but unfortunately it was not to be.Rochelle Hudson, the most exquisite of ingenues, had yet another thankless role for all her co-star billing as Johnny's sweetheart Mary Ellen. Thank heaven dignified Clarence Muse was around to lead in some spiritual folk singing that seemed to link the stories.Recommended.
MARIO GAUCI
A film noted for having anticipated the much more (justly) renowned I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG from the same year in promoting a plea for prison reform. Being essentially a 'B' movie, this does not really have the necessary qualities to compete with that classic film (lesser star, greater sentimentality, leaner running-time, etc.) but, taken on its own terms, it has reasonable merit and is certainly punchy enough to make whatever points were intended.Richard Dix is a legendary(!) convict whose hold over the chain gang is softened with the unexpected arrival of his idolizing younger brother (for killing the man who "ratted" on his sibling!). Dix's ripe acting has not worn well the passage of time (truth be told, neither has Paul Muni's from the rival film but the latter's was generally put at the service of better movies, so one tends to accept it more readily!) – even his Oscar-nominated turn in CIMARRON (1931), a Best Picture Oscar winner no less, is apt to raise a chuckle nowadays! That said, of the number of several unwatched efforts of his that I own, I look forward to the 1929 version of the much-filmed 'old dark house' comedy-thriller SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, the 1932 Hollywood satire THE LOST SQUADRON (with Erich von Stroheim more or less playing himself!), the early British sci-fi THE TUNNEL from 1935, and his seven appearances in the noir series of the 1940s THE WHISTLER.Anyway, the prisoners here are utilized in the building of roads (hence the title) and the severe treatment of them stems from slackening that could jeopardize meeting the deadline. To this end, the contractor involved purchases a sweat-box (subsequently made famous by David Lean's THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI [1957]) where hot-tempered convicts can be isolated to 'cool off' – however, the confined space and even more restricting shackles sometimes result in the occupant strangling himself to death (the film, in fact, starts off with real-life newspaper headlines reporting just such an incident)! After Dix's brother himself does a stretch in it, the hero is forced to compromise: if he simmers down the unrest, thus finish the road on time, the younger man is transferred to an office job with the warden…but, of course, the other prisoners begin to taunt him thereafter for being "yellow"! Eventually, the kid learns that his sibling has been made a lifer and determines to free him – the situation, however, escalates into a mass break-out and the cells themselves set on fire! When the authorities close in for the hunt, naturally, they blame everything on the two brothers! In the end, the convicts are all apprehended, with Dix going back of his own accord and carrying his injured brother (he had actually been shot with an airgun by some local children!). The contractor then screams for Dix's blood, but the kindly warden promptly produces evidence of the man's guilt in the sweat-box scandal (a happy ending which, again, is a far cry from the bleakly haunting one devised for I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG)! Moreover, there is an oddly paradoxical coda in which bible-thumping/bigamist prisoner Charles Middleton (whose wonderful performance anticipates Boris Karloff's and John Carradine's in two John Ford classics, THE LOST PATROL [1934] and THE GRAPES OF WRATH [1940] respectively!) is asked by Dix why he did not join them in the getaway when he had the chance – and the deadpan reply comes that one can escape from jail but not from (juggling between) three wives!
DJAkin
This was a great flick. The prisoners had to wear bullseyes on the back of their uniforms. This is so the guards could aim well at them when they try to escape. The black prisoners are great singers and there does not appear to be any racism. The sissy cook was a real interesting character. He was such a sissy. And that little brother had the PERFECT HAIR. I was impressed with how well he kept his appearance up.
glenn7
Having seen "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" recently, that film came to mind soon after Hell's Highway began. The similarities were obvious-- chain gangs, road work, harsh guards, escape, pursuit and capture. Even the music was similar-- worksong spirituals sung in rich harmony by black male choruses. But where "O Brother" wove humor and comedy throughout the story, "Hell's Highway" was hard, gritty, and definitely humor-less. You're told at the beginning this film is on the bandwagon of penal reform that must have existed at that time, showing the abuses and brutality and the efforts to stop it. It does this quite well, even with the corny (by today's culture)"Oh gosh, gee whillickers, Ma" script and acting that appeared occasionally. Producer David O. Selznick must have been a closet pyromaniac--a powerful scene in which the prison camp burns certainly called to mind the burning of Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind." This Depression-era film showed that even decent folks could find themselves behind the 8-ball of life. Overall, an excellent insight into one aspect of early 20th century American culture. Ignore the outdated-ness of the film and you'll learn a lot.
