Watch San Quentin For Free

A Masterpiece!

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Directed by Lloyd Bacon with a screenplay by Peter Milne and Humphrey Cobb from the story by Robert Tasker and John Bright, this average prison drama features Pat O'Brien as an army officer – Stephen Jameson – hired to improve the conditions at the titled prison.The inmates had been being treated badly by the acting captain, hard-nosed Lieutenant Druggin (Barton MacLane), whose quick trigger solution to every problem is lockup in solitary confinement. The warden (Joseph King) tries a new approach using Jameson who, coincidentally, is dating inmate Joe 'Red' Kennedy's (Humphrey Bogart) sister May (Ann Sheridan).Red has a pretty quick temper himself until Jameson's reforms – which include identifying and separating the career criminals from those who've just had tough breaks – begin to soften his hard edge. Just when it seems that Red is content to serve out the rest of his time peacefully, 'Sailor Boy' Hansen (Joseph Sawyer) turns his loyalties, with help from the jealous Lieutenant Druggin.Veda Ann Borg plays Hansen's girl on the outside; she helps Red and Sailor Boy escape. Marc Lawrence also appears, as do Frank Faylen and Edward Gargan (both uncredited) among many others.

"San Quentin" is definitely nothing special. Nothing so horrible, but nothing that stands out.The main attraction here is simply to watch Bogie do his thing. He plays the punk brother of the girl (Ann Sheridan) who the new prison yard top guy (Pat O'Brien) falls for. So O'Brien has a soft spot for Bogie despite him (O'Brian) being a tough as nails no-nonsense guy.Ann Sheridan is one of the most beautiful actresses of the 30's so she is always fun to watch. Seeing O'Brien act a bit tough is always fun because he's so low-key most of the time, when he actually gets mad and shouts he's kinda funny, in a good way. And Bogie is Bogie, acting tough and being cool.Definitely worth watching to see these three old pros, nothing much else here otherwise.

One of the better early prison movies is SAN QUENTIN directed by Lloyd Bacon for Warner Brothers. A fast paced drama starring Pat O'Brien as(Captain Stephen Jameson), a former military officer who accepts a job at the infamous San Quentin prison and brings with him ideas of military-style-reform. His changes don't go over easy with hardened criminals like 'Sailor Boy' Hanson(Joe Sawyer) and fresh new 'fish' like Joe Kennedy(Humphrey Bogart). An uprising of discontent begins when a bitter guard(Barton MacLane)informs some of the prison population that Jameson is dating Kennedy's attractive sister(Ann Sheridan).Movies like this flourished in America during the Great Depression and it is very odd that it was actually banned in Finland. Rounding out the cast: Joe King, James Robbins, Garry Owen, Veda Ann Borg and William Pawley.

This is one of those odd situations where the actors were some big names and decent in their performances, and the story wasn't bad....yet there wasn't much appeal to it, either. Only the action scene in the last 10-15 minutes provided any spark to this film which was too flat, for the most part.The story was about a new guy in charge of the San Quentin prison yard who was going to be humane and make things work. Pat O'Brien plays that guy, "Capt. Steve Jameson." The previous man in charge is a nasty, corrupt bird named "Lt. Druggin," who Barton MacLane plays effectively well. In the meantime we have the featured crook, "Red Kennedy," played by Humphrey Bogart, who almost always played villains in his 1930 films, and we have his sister "May" played by Ann Sheridan. O'Brien has the hots for her and promises to be fair to her brother. "Red," however, is too paranoid and stupid to appreciate what's done for him and that's when we get to the interesting finale to the film.Overall, not bad but not worth watching a second time. At 70 minutes, at least it didn't overstay its welcome.