74
Metascore
6 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Grimly realistic and often brutal, it exposes the inhuman conditions and paranoia that deepen criminal resolve among inmates.
- 75Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderThe prototype for every saga of the slammer to come, starring Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, and Robert Montgomery. Beery is particularly good in his toughest tough-guy role.
- 75USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkThe granddaddy of prison pics opens with a lecture on overcrowding and ends with a high mortality rate, in which Chester Morris, a bald Wallace Beery and stoolie Robert Montgomery (Elizabeth's father) are players. [24 Jun 1994, p.3D]
- 70The DissolveNoel MurrayThe DissolveNoel MurrayThe Big House is an MGM film, and while it takes on the problem of prison overcrowding, at times it’s more like a window into a secret society, with its own codes and concerns. It’s an outsized, abstracted version of everyday life circa 1930.
- It is a film that sweeps swiftly along, with some conspicuously fine episodes and others where the humor is not a little forced.