As Good As It Gets

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

"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.

Spencer Tracy is on death row in "20,000 Years in Sing Sing," a 1932 film from Warner Brothers. Tracy here plays Tom Connors, basically a Cagney role, an arrogant tough guy who plans on taking over the prison. He soon finds that he can't. When he finds out that his girlfriend (Davis) is in critical condition after a car accident, the warden risks his reputation by letting Tom out to see her. The warden is sure that he'll return. But will he? The studio didn't know what to do with Tracy when he first started there - he looked like a character actor, so he was put into Wallace Beery parts and roles like this until they figured him out. His authoritative acting made him suitable for dramatic leads.Nevertheless, Tracy pulls off this role, and Bette Davis is adorable as his girlfriend Fay. Lyle Talbot is on hand as a fellow prisoner, and Arthur Byron has a good turn as the warden, whom he makes decent and sympathetic.This is no "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang," but it's pretty good.

After several assaults with a deadly weapon, gangster Spencer Tracy (as Thomas "Tommy" Connors) goes to spend 5-30 years in New York's "Sing Sing" prison. At first, Mr. Tracy good-naturedly jokes about jail. But he loses his cool when the clothing is too baggy, and punches out a policeman. Tracy is made to wear his underwear - long johns, actually, and nobody changed the scripted line about how Tracy's legs made him look like Marlene Dietrich, after the wardrobe change...Tracy is allowed kissing time with shapely blonde girlfriend Bette Davis (as Fay Wilson). He tries to get along with reform-minded warden Arthur Byron (as Paul Long) and stay out of trouble with sneaky inmate Lyle Talbot (as Bud Saunders). For responding well, Tracy is allowed time out of jail to see Davis. Unfortunately, this leads to bigger trouble for Tracy… "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" are the total years the inmates are serving there. This was the only pairing of Tracy and Davis.****** 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (12/24/32) Michael Curtiz ~ Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot

This movie is a tame, toothless wannabe prison/crime drama that doesn't hold a candle to its pre-Code siblings such as Scarface, Little Caesar, and Public Enemy, to name a few. I was quite disappointed.The movie starts out promising enough, with Spencer Tracy as a hardened tough guy being hauled off to Sing Sing. The problem with this movie is that is was really all over the map -- it didn't pick one genre and stick to it. At times it was a crime flick (or was pretending to be), at other times a light-hearted comedy, at other times a buddy flick (with the prison warden and Tracy being the buddies, no less!). The actors did well with their individual roles (including a very young and beautiful Bette Davis) and the story moved fairly apace, but in the end it added up to a whole lot of nothing for me.To top it off, there were some inconsistencies and/or hard-to-follow plot developments that bothered me: 1 - During a psychological test session to determine which manual labor to place the prisoners in, Tracy and Lyle Talbot do good enough on their puzzle to earn the "shoe shop" (top of the line job at the prison, according to the story), but dolt Hype can't fit the square piece into the square slot even after 5 minutes, so he is assigned lavatory duty. However, minutes later when we see the boys toiling away in the shoe shop, there's Hype too! 2 - While on his honor leave, Tracy decides he needs to get out of town rather than returning to prison. He talks to one of his buddies to make arrangements to leave on a train, and even hands over $5,000 to help grease the wheels and make the escape happen. Then, a scene or two later, we see Tracy showing back up at prison. What gives? 3 - The whole business with Tracy's lawyer and his girlfriend and the $5,000, I just didn't understand it. The movie tried to explain it but either they did a really bad job of it, or there were things going on in 1932 that you just had to be there to understand it (and hence my 2005 mind didn't quite catch), or I'm as big of a dolt as Hype. (I prefer not to think it's the latter!) Overall, it was fun to watch Tracy and Davis early in their careers, but honestly wasn't really worth having to sit through this movie in order to do so.