Up the River

Up the River. 1930 Fox Films (20th Century Fox).
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, Gaylord Pendleton
Director: John Ford
Available from Amazon as a single DVD paired with When Willie Comes Marching Home, or as part of the Ford at Fox Collection: John Ford's American Comedies box set.

This movie is notable for being the only one that longtime friends Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart made together, and it is also their first credited appearances on film. There is also a disclaimer before the feature begins on DVD explaining that the movie was brought to disc using the best of the surviving materials still available. Henceforth, there are many scenes with noticable skips and lost dialogue, but most of the movie still looks as good as it can for one nearly 80 years old.

Two convicts, St. Louis and Dannemora Dan, (Tracy & Hymer) befriend a third named Steve (Bogart), who is in love with Judy (Luce), an inmate in a women's prison. After Steve and Judy are released, they get married and relocate to a small New England town where no one knows their shady pasts. The appearance of a shady salesman called Frosby (Pendleton) threatens to disrupt their new, quiet lives. Frosby had framed Judy, and he's threatening to expose Steve's record as a prisoner if he doesn't go along with a scheme to defraud his neighbors.

it's up to St. Louis and Dannemora Dam to escape jail and make their way to New England to help out Steve and Judy, and still have time to make it back for the prison's annual baseball game.

Recommended.