An innocent man sentenced to death gets caught up in a prison riot.An innocent man sentenced to death gets caught up in a prison riot.An innocent man sentenced to death gets caught up in a prison riot.
Preston Foster
- John 'Killer' Mears - Cell 4
- (as Preston S. Foster)
Alec B. Francis
- Father O'Connor
- (uncredited)
Gladden James
- Warden's Secretary
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Broadway play of the same name upon which this film is based opened at the Sam H. Harris Theatre, 226 W. 42nd St. on February 13, 1930 and ran for 289 performances until October. Spencer Tracy played the lead role of John Mears. Clark Gable also played the role in later productions. Both actors were brought to the attention of Hollywood because of their involvement with this play.
- GoofsAs Joe Berg is saying goodbye to "Killer" Mears, a moving shadow of the boom microphone is visible on the wall of Mears' cell.
- Quotes
John 'Killer' Mears, Cell 4: [at the end of the prison break, walking into the guards' machine guns] I think I'll go get a little air.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Rush: A Show of Hands (1989)
Featured review
Sentimental about killers
Kindly, sympathetic, upstanding convicts who are on Death Row for no good reason that we ever learn (except that we know Dick Walters has been wrongfully convicted)are put to death by prison guards who vary from indifferent to mean, while the Warden agonizes over what good capital punishment does and the meaning of it all -- until an attempted prison break turns him into the most bloodthirsty of all.
The one-set stage play is opened up a little bit by scenes showing the crime for which Walters has been convicted and the discovery of the criminals who really committed the crime. Good performances are turned in by Preston Forster as Killer Mears, the one prisoner who shows a mean streak that may have landed him on Death Row; and by Daniel L. Haynes, who had starred in Hallelujah three years earlier, as the token black singing prisoner.
Anti-death penalties dramas haven't become more balanced or less simplistic; if anything, the thumb on the scale is even heavier in The Green Mile's recounting of the execution of angelic Michael Clarke Duncan. But today more realistic depictions of prison life and prisoners abound in cable television documentaries, and the misplaced sentimentality of The Last Mile toward its misunderstood convicts isn't easily swallowed. It does, however, have Killer Mears' bravado line at the end of the prison break: "I think I'll go get a little air."
The one-set stage play is opened up a little bit by scenes showing the crime for which Walters has been convicted and the discovery of the criminals who really committed the crime. Good performances are turned in by Preston Forster as Killer Mears, the one prisoner who shows a mean streak that may have landed him on Death Row; and by Daniel L. Haynes, who had starred in Hallelujah three years earlier, as the token black singing prisoner.
Anti-death penalties dramas haven't become more balanced or less simplistic; if anything, the thumb on the scale is even heavier in The Green Mile's recounting of the execution of angelic Michael Clarke Duncan. But today more realistic depictions of prison life and prisoners abound in cable television documentaries, and the misplaced sentimentality of The Last Mile toward its misunderstood convicts isn't easily swallowed. It does, however, have Killer Mears' bravado line at the end of the prison break: "I think I'll go get a little air."
helpful•123
- gimhoff
- Sep 13, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Numbers in Hell
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 15 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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