....only because legal ramifications and accusations held up Warner's "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". If there was anyone who could write a realistic crime drama, that person was Rowland Young for the reason being his association with gangsters ("Bugsy" Siegel etc). He came up through the ranks, first as a gag writer for Reginald Denny, then working on a Hoot Gibson western. He had written an unproduced play, "A Handful of Clouds" which in 1930 was turned into "Doorway to Hell", the first of the three ground breaking gangster films. Within the year Young was directing and even though he only directed three films they were all highly distinctive. "Hell's Highway" his second was an expose of prison labour camps which happened to be released a few months in advance of the better publicized "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". The gangster movie vogue was almost finished. It was being pushed to one side by new novelties such as reporters, gossip columnists and the next "big thing" the social conscience movie.This movie definitely doesn't have the brutality and rawness of the far more ambitious "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang". It is not until young punk Johnny Ellis (Tom Brown in another winning performance) is recruited to the chain gang that you actually find out why his big brother "Duke" (Richard Dix) is there. So for a good part of the film "Duke" doesn't have the audience sympathy because you don't know anything about him. As in each of Young's directed films there is the odd character or two - in this one C. Henry Gordon as the sadistic guard, Blacksnake Skinner, who plays the violin while the camp burns to the ground, Charles Middleton ("Ming the Merciless") as a bigamous prisoner who bamboozles the stupid guards with his "ability" to see into the future and Stanley Fields playing against type as an undercover guard!!!!The public are up in arms about the callous treatment of chain gang prisoners, especially a method of punishment known as a "sweat box" - a small shed of corrugated iron in which the prisoners are manacled and left, often dying before guards remember they are there!!! So far so good but there is just not enough raw emotion in the characters for me. Toward the end Middleton's character says "Prison's a picnic - compared to what I have back home" and that seems to sum it up well!! The night Johnny arrives at the camp happens to be the night "Duke" is planning to break out. Seeing Johnny he decides to stay behind to look out for his kid brother but when his brother is put into the "sweat box" "Duke" makes a deal with the guards -in return for better treatment for his brother (which includes a cushy job in the office) he agrees to keep the men in order. Aside from a few grumbles from the other prisoners "Duke" isn't on the receiving end of any harsh treatment (imagine what would have happened to Paul Muni if he had tried that in his movie). He is stripped down to be flogged but when the guard sees a Marine tattoo on his back he suddenly doesn't have the heart. There is a scene in which Field's accuses a guard named Popeye of recruiting vicious locals as prison guards but it is not expanded upon. On paper it may have looked like a telling role that Dix could put across but unfortunately it was not to be.Rochelle Hudson, the most exquisite of ingenues, had yet another thankless role for all her co-star billing as Johnny's sweetheart Mary Ellen. Thank heaven dignified Clarence Muse was around to lead in some spiritual folk singing that seemed to link the stories.Recommended.

To me this film shown on TCM @ 2 wks ago early am! (end of NOV. 03) left such an impact. on me Never Heard or seen before!! . wow..better than I AM A Fugitive From A Chain Gang!! before the code was in progress.. A prison drama depicting the harsh realities & also the racial & sexual innuendoes which awhile later would have been censored: WATCH!!! Observe the cook in the Prison..obviously gay or "Pansy" being slapped on the behind by one of the male wardens.. & later talking about a funeral which he'll never forget, where the Pansies were sooo large"!! & the immortal Louise Beavers visiting her boyfriend in same prison"rolling her eyes" & making it clear that she wishes her "Handy Man" was free.. so she could feel so much better!!!& he sees her & states he"aint well since he ain't had no 'sugar"...wow could not believe my eyes & ears !!& the relationship between the imprisoned brothers..THIS FILM SHOULD BE ON DVD/and or VHS has a lot to say about prisons of the South at that time (early 1930s) & sexual mores & racial attitudes way back then.. should not be missed !an Historic Document!!! How did we let this one pass?? & Rochelle Hudson? gorgeous & beautiful Want to see again..Thanks TCM once more

It's like a touring production of the Warner's classic, stripped down to 62 minutes and missing both the star power and the production values. And despite all the entertaining muckraking, it indulges in Hollywoodisms -- this chain gang can sing like the Hall Johnson Choir while swinging pickaxes, and Dix wakes under filthy conditions with smooth shaven cheeks and lit like a big movie star. But most of the details are right, and the unrelenting pessimism and brooding -- Dix doesn't even play a framed innocent a la Paul Muni, so he's less sympathetic -- is refreshingly against the grain. The director and cinematographer do a lot with deep focus and expressionistic angles, and the pre-Code grittiness -- lots of unblinking violence and death -- feel almost modern.

Having seen "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" recently, that film came to mind soon after Hell's Highway began. The similarities were obvious-- chain gangs, road work, harsh guards, escape, pursuit and capture. Even the music was similar-- worksong spirituals sung in rich harmony by black male choruses. But where "O Brother" wove humor and comedy throughout the story, "Hell's Highway" was hard, gritty, and definitely humor-less. You're told at the beginning this film is on the bandwagon of penal reform that must have existed at that time, showing the abuses and brutality and the efforts to stop it. It does this quite well, even with the corny (by today's culture)"Oh gosh, gee whillickers, Ma" script and acting that appeared occasionally. Producer David O. Selznick must have been a closet pyromaniac--a powerful scene in which the prison camp burns certainly called to mind the burning of Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind." This Depression-era film showed that even decent folks could find themselves behind the 8-ball of life. Overall, an excellent insight into one aspect of early 20th century American culture. Ignore the outdated-ness of the film and you'll learn a lot.