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The near-perfect mixture of craftsmanship and pathos in Warner Brothers crime pictures of the 30’s and early 40’s is instantly recognizable to hardcore fans and elevates films like Anatole Litvak’s Castle on the Hudson way above similar productions from other studios. An arguably superior remake of 1932’s 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, the film stars John Garfield as cocky, highfalutin gangster Tommy Gordan, whose attorney Ed Crowley (Jerome Cowan) for once is unable to save him from a sentence in Sing Sing, where Tommy’s brash defensiveness is slowly worn down by the trust placed in him by Warden Walter Long (Pat O’Brien). When Tommy’s devoted girlfriend Kay Manners (Ann Sheridan) suffers a life-threatening car accident at the hands of the lecherous Crowley, the kindhearted warden grants Tommy one day of freedom to go to her side, but will he return? Burgess Meredith is exceptional as a desperate inmate who leads a doomed escape plan, and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams adds a few welcome laugh-out-loud moments, most notably while attempting to solve the warden’s job placement puzzle. As with most Warner pictures of the period, the script is brilliantly economical, the pace is lightning fast, and the humanity shines in every character.
