San Quentin (1937) **1/2

Release Date: August 7, 1937

Running Time: 70 minutes

Cast: Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Pat O’Brien is ex-Army officer Steve Jameson, a man with a reputation for getting things done. He is hired to be the new Chief Guard at San Quentin after Lt. Druggin (Barton MacLane) holding the position, temporarily, is deemed unfit for it. Druggin is a rigid man long of discipline and short on temper whereas Jameson is looking for opportunities to reform the men rather than dish out harsh penalties. 

Mae Kennedy (Ann Sheridan) is a night club singer who has caught Jameson’s eye. She also happens to have a brother, Red (Humphrey Bogart), who has just been arrested and sent to San Quentin. Red initially has a chip on his shoulder and immediately gets into trouble. However, Jameson goes easy on him, seeing in the man an opportunity to help him rather than make a career criminal out of him. This leads to some clashes between the two men as well as with Druggin who is looking for an opportunity to undermine his new boss. 

The message this movie appears to be conveying from the get-go is that not all criminals are a lost cause. Yet it doesn’t seem to want to stick with that message and churns out one that is far more pessimistic. We are subjected to scenes where a prisoner, full of the word of God and repentance, jumps at the opportunity to steal a rifle and shoot one of his guards, threatening to kill his fellow inmates, too. Even Red, who seems to be getting the message and trying to improve himself later in the film, is easily steered back to violence by some well chosen words from the scheming Druggin and fellow prisoner Hansen (Sawyer), a character who only seems to be there to either harass Red or tempt him.

This would be a stronger film if it picked a moral road and stuck by it. Instead, it veers off in its final act making the message of the film confusing and frustrating. This is doubly frustrating as Red is the only well developed character in the film. Jameson and Mae are utilized merely to keep the plot rolling, often acting offscreen to do so. We get no scenes to convince us of their blooming romance, nor of why it would suddenly set Red off on a suicidal anger trip. 

San Quentin has atmosphere aplenty and has a sense of humor about it’s setting and story. It’s really too bad it were not more focused and well defined. It could have used another fifteen minutes to flesh out the characters and build up the conflict better rather than relying so heavily on generic malevolence. It’s a perfectly adequate watch just don’t expect any deeper meaning to it.