Up the River

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Up the River
Up the River (film poster).jpg
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
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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. [2]

Contents

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. [3] [4]

Cast

Production

Up the River was produced in 1930 by Fox Film during John Ford's early sound period; it was reportedly conceived as a grim prison drama until MGM's The Big House prompted a reworking into a comedy, and Ford later credited William Collier Sr. with helping him rewrite the script. [6]

The scenario was written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, the cinematography was by Joseph H. August, and the editing was by Frank E. Hull. [6]

Ford foregrounds male camaraderie, structuring the plot around two veteran convicts who break out to help a friend and then return in time for a prison baseball game against a rival team. [6]

The cast featured Spencer Tracy at the start of his screen career opposite Warren Hymer, with an early appearance by Humphrey Bogart in a “nice boy” role atypical of his later persona. [6]

Upon release, Fox announced plans to continue Tracy and Hymer as a comedy team, but after a further teaming in Goldie (1931) the idea was abandoned. [6]

The film was produced and released by Fox Film Corporation in 1930 under the direction of John Ford. [7]

Only a worn, splice‑riddled exhibition print of the film is known to survive; the same compromised element was later included in Twentieth Century Fox’s Ford at Fox DVD collection, enabling access despite its condition. [6]

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

References

  1. 1 2 Hall, Mordaunt (October 11, 1930). "The Screen: Levity in Prison". The New York Times . p. 21.
  2. "Up the River. 1930. Directed by John Ford | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  3. Up the River at TCM Movie Database
  4. Hall, Mordaunt (2008). "Movies: About Up the River". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
  5. "p15759coll22_4". digitalcollections.oscars.org. January 29, 1931. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kaufman, J. B. (May 31, 2014). "Up the River (1930)". J. B. Kaufman. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  7. "John Ford (MoMA program) – includes Up the River (1930)" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. 1975. Retrieved August 25, 2025.

Bibliography