Up the River

This article is about the 1930 film. For the 1938 film, see Up the River (1938 film). For the phrase, see Sing Sing. For the card game, see Oh, hell.

Up the River is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford and starring Claire Luce as well as Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their feature-film debuts and the only film in which the men appeared together. Fox remade the film in 1938 starring Preston Foster and Tony Martin.

Up the River
Poster with Claire Luce and Humphrey Bogart
Directed by	John Ford
Written by	Maurine Dallas Watkins
Produced by	William Fox
Starring	Spencer Tracy Humphrey Bogart
Cinematography	Joseph H. August
Edited by	Frank E. Hull
Music by	James F. Hanley Joseph McCarthy
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date	October 10, 1930 (1930-10-10) (New York)[1]
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Two convicts, St. Louis and Dannemora Dan, befriend another convict named Steve, who is in love with the incarcerated Judy. Steve is paroled, promising Judy that he will wait for her release five months later. He returns to his hometown in New England and his mother's home but is followed there by Judy's former boss, a scam artist named Frosby who threatens to expose Steve's prison record if Steve refuses to participate in a scheme to defraud his neighbors. Steve complies until Frosby defrauds his mother.

St. Louis and Dannemora Dan escape from prison and come to Steve's aid, removing a gun that he had planned to use to shoot Frosby and recovering bonds stolen by Frosby. They return to prison in time for its annual baseball game against a rival penitentiary.^[2][3]

Cast

• Spencer Tracy as Saint Louis
• Claire Luce as Judy Fields
• Warren Hymer as Dannemora Dan
• Humphrey Bogart as Steve Jordan
• Morgan Wallace as Frosby (Uncredited)
• William Collier, Sr. as Pop
• Joan Lawes as Jean
• Bob Burns as "Slim", Bazooka Player (Uncredited and in blackface)
• Edythe Chapman as Mrs. Jordan (Uncredited)
• Ward Bond as Inmate Socked by Saint Louis (Uncredited)
• Steve Pendleton as Morris (Uncredited)^[4]

Production

Spencer Tracy had previously starred in two Warner Bros. shorts earlier in 1930 and Humphrey Bogart had been an unbilled extra in a silent film and a star in two shorts. Up the River is the first credited feature film for both actors, and it is the only film in which Tracy and Bogart ever appeared together. Both were later cast in The Desperate Hours in 1955, but because neither would consent to second billing, the role intended for Tracy went to Fredric March instead. Bogart is listed fourth after the top-billed Tracy in Up the River, but his role is equally large and his likeness is featured prominently on posters that did not include Tracy's image. After Up the River, Fox awarded Tracy a contract as a leading man.

Up the River is the only John Ford film in which Bogart appeared, but Ford would later direct Tracy again in The Last Hurrah (1958).

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Mordaunt Hall noted that the film "often proved to be violently funny" to his fellow audience members and wrote: "It has a number of clever incidents and lines, but now and again it is more than a trifle too slow."^[1]

See also

• List of baseball films