If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

"20,000 Years in Sing Sing" was the only film Spencer Tracy made at "Warner Bros." He was a last minute replacement for James Cagney who had been suspended by the studio at the time. I thought Tracy did a fine job as the arrogant and pompous hoodlum who thinks he will be treated like royalty whilst serving a prison sentence. He applies a similar acting method in that he is naturalistic. In spite of his average height, Spencer Tracy is quite imposing by his sturdy build. After being given a bit of a rude awakening by the prison governor, Tracy comes to realise that he will need to tow the line like every other convict. Bette Davis doesn't have much screen time but when she is in the film, she has good scenes with Spencer Tracy. The direction is solid and the dialogue is pretty good. There is some effective action and a good supporting cast. This and "Each Dawn I Die," are the best prison films "Warner Bros." made.

Although I hadn't seen it in many years, this was a film that I remembered. Some of the scenes are simply unforgettable, even including the opening credits where as the convicts walk past their number of years follow them in white letters, leading up to "20,000 YEARS" and then the main title. A number of things made this film stand above the typical gangster flicks of the time. For example, much of the dialog is rather sophisticated for a prison yarn. A few select scenes seemed to be filmed on location along the Hudson River.I always saw Spencer Tracy's breakout film as being "Fury", made 4 years later, but after seeing this again, I would have to say this was a dramatic breakthrough for him. And, here he wasn't as guilty of talking loudly to look tough or "in charge" (as he often did in "Riffraff", for example).Time does take its toll, however. There was clearly part of a scene missing from the print supplied to TCM, roughly at the 26 minute point. when the Tracy character is being tested so as to determine what his job should be.I couldn't find anything online to support the idea that Sing Sing allowed a few prisoners out on the honor system, although I did find an article dating to the 1920s that supported the concept in general, although it did not mention Sing Sing. So, while this part of the plot seemed illogical...well, perhaps. I have to admit that it was handled well in the script. James Cagney had been the original star slated to star in this film, but I can't imagine him pulling this off as well as did Tracy.One thing that particularly interested me was the supporting role by Louis Calhern...the earliest film I have seen him in...and in this case the slick villain lawyer. Two other performances worth mentioning here are that of Bette Davis as Tracy's love interest...really quite beautiful here; and that of the warden, played superbly by Arthur Byron.A fine movie. Thank god it was Spencer Tracy and not Jimmy Cagney.

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A tough guy (Spencer Tracy) gets 5-30 in Sing Sing but he thinks the journey will be easy due to his connections on the outside. The Warden (Arthur Byron) eventually reforms the guy but when his girlfriend (Bette Davis) gets injured, the Warden offers the man one night outside the prison if he promises to return the following day. This Michael Curtiz directed prison drama is pretty good, although it really doesn't offer us anything new or original. The story eventually falls apart in the middle section but Tracy and Davis, in their only film together, makes it worth watching.

Warner Bros. began their grim social dramas in the '30s and 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING is a good companion piece to their other blockbuster drama I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG.If this one had been made ten years later, it would have starred Humphrey Bogart (a much more convincing tough guy prisoner than Tracy), and Ann Sheridan would have played the gangster's moll. Here the roles are essayed by SPENCER TRACY and BETTE DAVIS, both of them effective although not as well cast as Bogart and Sheridan would have been.Tracy is the swaggering bully who thinks life owes him something, even in prison, and only after some hardships behind prison walls does he begin to respond to the humanity of a good warden. All of the prison scenes are well done and probably are a true reflection of what life behind bars was like during this time period. LYLE TALBOT has a good supporting role as a rebellious prisoner bent on making a break and LOUIS CALHERN is fine as Joe Finn, a con man who gets his comeuppance from Tracy and Davis in a well staged fight scene.Good, grim social drama has all the usual melodramatic overtones of the '30s dramas but still packs a punch even though it's a time capsule of prison life then. There is virtually no background music throughout unless montages are being shown, something that would change drastically in just a few more years.