What a beautiful movie!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Relentless prosecutor (Walter Pidgeon) is framed for bribery and sent to prison. Once there, he is faced with thousands (!) of criminals he put away. He finds unlikely help from a woman (Rita Johnson) he prosecuted. Pidgeon discovers she, too, was framed and has to face that the justice system is more flawed than he originally believed.Excellent 'B' movie from MGM. A fast-paced, tough crime drama with a colorful cast backing up Pidgeon that includes Grant Mitchell, Nat Pendleton, Harold Huber, Guinn Williams, and Paul Kelly (no stranger to prison). Arthur Aylesworth is fun as a creepy old lunatic Pidegon is forced to sleep next to. It's one of those movies where convicts are mostly an alright bunch of guys and, even if they hate your guts, they will learn to respect you if you show how tough you are. Yeah, it's far-fetched but still entertaining. It's barely over an hour so there's no excuse not to check it out.

6,000 Enemies (1939) *** (out of 4) Good "B" picture from MGM about a tough-as-nails D.A. (Walter Pidgeon) who sends everyone to the big house and he takes pleasure in making sure that the streets are clear of any scum. His luck eventually runs out when a gangster frames his and soon the D.A. gets sent to the same prison where he's sent thousands of people. Once inside his life is in danger but he plans on making it through and along the way he meets a woman (Rita Johnson) he sent up who might just have been innocent as well as hold a clue to his own case. 6,000 ENEMIES is without question MGM's attempt to try and capture the mood and spirit of a Warner crime picture and for the most part it succeeds. At just 62-minutes there's really no time for any character development or any type of plot growth as everything happens without much reason for thought. The first five-minutes pretty much covers Pidgeon's rise to the top and then the next two-minutes covers his fall from grace and yet the way he's framed makes no sense and probably could have been defeated inside any court room. With that said, there's really no point in making fun of the plot too much because the movie was made to be simple entertainment and that's exactly what it manages to be. I thought the prison stuff was a lot of fun as we get a lot of familiar situations yet director Seitz really makes them seem fresh and original. One of the highlights is a scene where the D.A. wants to be put in with the regular guys instead of the safe haven so they send him to the cafeteria where a full riot breaks out. Another very good sequence has him having to fight 'Socks' Martin (Nat Pendleton) who just happens to be one of the men sent to kill him. There's another good subplot between the D.A. and a doctor (Paul Kelly) inside the prison. In a film like this it's always good to have a strong group of actors and they all do fine work here with Pidgeon fitting the role of the tough guy with ease. He has no problem making you believe he's this brilliant D.A. and he is good at showing off his toughness as well. I thought both Kelly and Pendleton added a lot of entertainment and both are strong as usual. Johnson was also very good in her role and you'll certainly be wishing you could see more of her. Character actor Grant Mitchell plays the dimwitted warden and we even get Guinn Williams in a brief part. Fans of "B" crime pictures are going to get a real kick out of this one. It's certainly far from a masterpiece but then again it wasn't trying to be GONE WITH THE WIND.

***SPOILERS*** With him targeting top New York City mobster Joe Silenus, Harold Huber, the hard hitting just elected city District Attorney Steve Donegan, Walter Pidgeon, gets framed in an elaborate scheme involving his horse playing assistant Don Barrett, J.M Kerrigan who's in hock to Silenus for $3,000.00.Found guilty and sent to Sing Sing Prison on a 1 to 10 year sentence Donegan is determined to get the evidence, even behind bars, to prove his innocence. Silenus knowing how far Donegan is willing to go to get him puts a hit out on him with 6,000 more then willing inmates, many that Donegan sent there, to take up Silenus' offer.The movie has Donegan become a marked man with everyone there trying to take a crack shot at him with the harebrained prison Warden Alvin Parkhust, Grant Mitchell, more interested in the freshness of his delivered , by the inmates, fruits & vegetables then the safety and welfare of the inmates he's in charge of. It's when Donegan is attacked from behind that his life is saved when woman inmate Anne Barry, Rita Johnson, screamed alerting him and a prison guard who gunned down his attacker. As it turned out Barry was sent up the river, like almost everyone else in Sing Sing, by District Attorney Donegan in him not believing her that she was framed! Now with him behind bars for a crime he didn't commit Donegan could see just how right she was! Even more telling it was non other then mob boss Silenus who,like he did to him, framed her!Lots of action with a wild food fight in the prison mess-hall as well as a massive prison break to keep the audience entertained but the highlight of the movie was a boxing match between former prize fighter Donegan and Sing Sing heavyweight champ Socks Martin, Nat Pendleton. Socks together with all the other prison inmates gains Donegan's respect in him being able to stand up to his wild and mostly illegal,like rabbit and kidney, punches for 10 long and grueling rounds.****SPOILERS**** It's when Donegan's kid brother Phil, John Arledge, who came to visit him with evidence of his innocence was gunned down by Silenus' hoods right outside of Sing Sing Prison that the prison break that was put on hold swung into action. Donegan trying to get the inmates back in their cells in order to prevent them from being gunned down is helped by Anne in backing them off with a spray of live steam from the laundry room's plumbing system. With everything now under control it's found out, from his dead brother's stack of evidence, who was responsible for framing Donegan and Anne Barry as well as murdering Phil mob Boss Joe Silenus! Indited convicted and sentenced Silenus ends up getting everything that's coming to him: A one way ticket to the Sing Sing hot seat! Freed and now engaged both Donegan & Anne check out their new house in the country and make sure that it doesn't have, after what they've been through in their stay in prison, a laundry room!P.S Two actors in this prison movie Paul Kelly as as prison doctor Malcolm Scott and prison inmate Ransom played by Tom Neal actually served time behind bars, Kelly before and Neal after they were in the film, for manslaughter!

For a 1939 movie, not too bad. A bonus is that it runs just barely one hour, so tells the story fairly crisply. Walter Pigeon is one of those 'names' that stuck with me, but I don't recall seeing any of his movies before I saw this one. Here (early 40s) he is Steve Donegan, very tough New York prosecutor, who has put away thousands of criminals. The movie opens with the trial of a pretty young lady Ann Barry (Rita Johnson, about 25), accused of embezzle money. She claims it was a frame-up, and part of his closing arguments Steve states with authority that in their system it would be highly unlikely that someone could be framed successfully. She is convicted and sent upstate for a long time.Meanwhile the local crime boss wants to neutralize the active and successful prosecutor, so sets Steve up for a frame, taking bribes. Steve's words come back to haunt him, when he claims he was being framed. He is convicted, and sent to the same prison where he had 6000 Enemies (title of the movie). Many are out to get him, most of the prisoners are portrayed as either crazy or worthless hardened criminals.Come to think of it, if he sent away an average of 2 criminals a week, 50 weeks a year, it would take 60 years to put away 6000 criminals, and many would have died during that period of time. Maybe they should have called it '1500 Enemies.'SPOILERS. Eventually Steve and Ann Barry become allies, he realizes that she is not guilty, and when the mob boss fails to have Steve killed via an inside job, they drive by and gun down Steve's brother, walking to go visit Steve. The shooters are taken down by guard machine guns, the mob boss is exposed, Steve and Ann are exonerated. Not a very good movie overall, but fun to watch as an old classic.