SAN QUENTIN

Warner Bros., 1937.  Directed by Lloyd Bacon.  Camera:  Sid Hickox.  With Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Barton MacLane, Joe Sawyer, Veda Ann Borg, James Robbins, Joseph King, Gordon Oliver, Garry Owen, Marc Lawrence, Emmett Vogan, William Pawley, Al Hill, Max Wagner, George Lloyd, Ernie Adams.

Steve Jameson, an ex-army officer, takes the job of yard captain at San Quentin prison.  He falls in love with May, a café singer whose brother, Joe, is arrested for robbery and sentenced to San Quentin.  Jameson institutes a merit system intended to separate unfortunate lawbreakers from habitual criminals, and Joe is assigned to a road camp as a step in his rehabilitation.  Lieutenant Druggin, who resents Jameson's methods, assigns Hansen, a hardened convict, to the camp and plants suspicions in Joe's mind about Jameson's relationship with May.

Aided by Helen, Hansen's moll, Joe and Hansen escape from the road gang.  Joe makes his way to May's apartment, where Jameson has gone to trace the fleeing convict.  Joe shoots Jameson, wounding him, but Joe is disabused of his suspicions when May tells him that she and Jameson are in love.  Joe decides to return to prison and give himself up, but on the way he is shot by police.  Mortally wounded, he staggers back to San Quentin and dies at the prison gates, his last words a plea for the convicts to cooperate with Jameson.

The Films of Humphrey Bogart
by Clifford McCarty
Bonanza Books, New York (1965)

Detailed information about this film is available from
the AFI Catalog of Feature Films at AFI.com, or by clicking here.

Additional photos courtesy of Gary