Castle on The Hudson (1940)

Castle on the Hudson (1940) is an early classic film noir high drama morality-guided prison movie with several differences. 

Hubris-powered hood John Garfield has ambitions to be The King of New York. 

He's young and good-looking, and filled with the kind of confidence that was popularised by the full-on gangsters of the 1930s.

He owns the night clubs and he owns the streets and he's just the sort of hero we have seen emerging over the last decade, out of the pre-Code era and into the fully coded sort of productions as Castle on the Hudson represents.

Working his way up from the streets, the hoods and mobsters of the 1940s were a special kind of gift to the world. American cinema offered more than a taste of evil, but a full on immersion into the lifestyles of the rich and criminally infamous.

The birth of this fantasy was not sudden, but was a long term trend. Hollywood was very much going to be the home of criminality, and where the society of the time thought it was going to learn all about crime, the darker paths, and criminal sexuality.

Dancing with strangers, lovers and the law — John Garfield and Ann Sheridan
Castle on The Hudson (1940)

Criminal sexuality among other factors, referring to the types of men and women that fell for each other, on the whole. Through all of film noir there is a central moral tension between the ideas of what a good guy is and what a good gal is, and very often movies feature exemplars of each.

Ann Sheridan — powerful moral influence in
Castle on the Hudson (1940)

John Garfield was great at this, as were the movies themselves. Castle on the Hudson is in fact a faithful remake of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, which starred Spenser Tracy. The 1932 film is almost so similar as to confound the idea of a remake, and Castle on the Hudson does seem to have a peculiarly 1930s feel about it, proof again perhaps that around the turn of the decade, and doubtless with the help of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, styles were about to change-up and sophisticate.

Pat O'Brien — new-found and liberal moral authority in
Castle on the Hudson (1940)

John Garfield's hood is as he says himself, on his way to the top and nobody is going to stop him. He takes what he wants, does what he wants, and believes in an almost fairy-tale like level of invulnerability.

Of course, all of that is the promising set-up for a fall, but we don't know how bad it's going to get. With Anatole Litvak at the helm, John Garfield takes us on a journey.

Ultimately he is going to learn humility, but this is 1940s film noir and there are more questions than just that.

John Garfield prison bad boy in Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Most interestingly of all, the little Little Caesar of this 1940s prison palaver, makes the journey to Sing Sing accompanied by a group of journalists. As they take the train along the banks of the Hudson and the prison comes into view, the journalists goad and excite the young criminal, who gaily rises to the bait. Not only does he believe that he is not going to serve his time, but he believes that he'll become the king of the prison, as well as the king of New York.

Within the prison of course, things are different. As a criminal microcosm of the society it serves, the prison is. What Castle on the Hudson of course aims for is criminal reform, although there is a huge amount of japing about inside, as well as the tough side of prison life, being the mental effects of solitary on the ego.

Pat O'Brien lands fair and square as the prison boss with a heart, too much heart of course. John Garfield's portrayal of the late-American prohibition era hood is almost like a dream. As he says himself, he's on his way to the top and nobody is going to stop him. He takes what he wants, does what he wants, and believes in an almost fairy-tale like level of invulnerability.

Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Burgess Meredith and John Garfield in Castle on the Hudson (1940)

There is plenty bonhomie behind bars, that can't be ignored. There are laughs and larks, as if one were at school, and a close inspection of a primitive intelligence and aptitude grading system used by the authorities. 

The morality of film noir does at least capture the hubris of crime, in its truest anti-social measurements. As this is only 1940, the corporate criminal is not entirely a fully known prospect in society, although Gordan's words — quoted above — do signal someone who may have capitalist ambitions in the land of the free — as readily as criminal ambitions.

Prison violence and its control — with Pat O'Brien in
Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Of course, all of that is the promising set-up for a fall, but we don't know how bad it's going to get. With Anatole Litvak at the helm, John Garfield takes us on a journey. Let it not be forgotten that Castle on the Hudson is also, a death row movie. Here is another key feature of American life, the fascination of which is derailed into once more, a fantasy of what it is like to face execution.

The fantasy is for the movie goer, and although it may seem a remote prospect for the majority of the population, this approach to the filming of death row is religious, heroic, fearful and above all else — sober.

Sobering visions of death row are not uncommon in film noir. How our characters get here is often fascinating too, but usually it is a fateful encounter. John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), does deserve to be on death row — but irony of ironies is there for a crime he did not commit. Exactly.

Ann Sheridan — death row film noir perfection in
Castle on the Hudson (1940)

For the sake of the arts, death row is an empty place, where men stand like statues and women weep for all they are worth. If film noir taught us anything, it is the nature of the one-way ticket, and here at the point of execution, this is always keenly felt.

In Castle on the Hudson (1940), death row is its usual minimalist, sobering event. As this is film noir however, our hero does not entirely belong there. Punishment comes, and in fact it often comes to the innocent as we all know. State execution remains a singular and common outcome in film noir.

John Garfield in Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Ultimately he is going to learn humility, but this is 1940s film noir and there are more questions than just that. Pair up Castle on the Hudson with its closets relatives — Each Dawn I Die (1939) — Invisible Stripes (1939) — and you've a film noir prison festival on your hands. 

As for death row, it remains a conclusive conclusion to many a film noir, as anyone who has seen Angles With Dirty Faces will testify. Sad and straight the walls and corridors of the movie set are perfect in the grey tones of the black and white film stock, to present that most final of endings for everyone leaving the theater seat stunned and reminded of the wild tracts of moral landscape never visited by the normal working population.

The final walk in Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Castle on the Hudson (1940) on Wikipedia