A film noted for having anticipated the much more (justly) renowned I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG from the same year in promoting a plea for prison reform. Being essentially a 'B' movie, this does not really have the necessary qualities to compete with that classic film (lesser star, greater sentimentality, leaner running-time, etc.) but, taken on its own terms, it has reasonable merit and is certainly punchy enough to make whatever points were intended.
Richard Dix is a legendary(!) convict whose hold over the chain gang is softened with the unexpected arrival of his idolizing younger brother (for killing the man who "ratted" on his sibling!). Dix's ripe acting has not worn well the passage of time (truth be told, neither has Paul Muni's from the rival film but the latter's was generally put at the service of better movies, so one tends to accept it more readily!) – even his Oscar-nominated turn in CIMARRON (1931), a Best Picture Oscar winner no less, is apt to raise a chuckle nowadays! That said, of the number of several unwatched efforts of his that I own, I look forward to the 1929 version of the much-filmed 'old dark house' comedy-thriller SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, the 1932 Hollywood satire THE LOST SQUADRON (with Erich von Stroheim more or less playing himself!), the early British sci-fi THE TUNNEL from 1935, and his seven appearances in the noir series of the 1940s THE WHISTLER.
Anyway, the prisoners here are utilized in the building of roads (hence the title) and the severe treatment of them stems from slackening that could jeopardize meeting the deadline. To this end, the contractor involved purchases a sweat-box (subsequently made famous by David Lean's THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI [1957]) where hot-tempered convicts can be isolated to 'cool off' – however, the confined space and even more restricting shackles sometimes result in the occupant strangling himself to death (the film, in fact, starts off with real-life newspaper headlines reporting just such an incident)! After Dix's brother himself does a stretch in it, the hero is forced to compromise: if he simmers down the unrest, thus finish the road on time, the younger man is transferred to an office job with the warden but, of course, the other prisoners begin to taunt him thereafter for being "yellow"!
Eventually, the kid learns that his sibling has been made a lifer and determines to free him – the situation, however, escalates into a mass break-out and the cells themselves set on fire! When the authorities close in for the hunt, naturally, they blame everything on the two brothers! In the end, the convicts are all apprehended, with Dix going back of his own accord and carrying his injured brother (he had actually been shot with an airgun by some local children!). The contractor then screams for Dix's blood, but the kindly warden promptly produces evidence of the man's guilt in the sweat-box scandal (a happy ending which, again, is a far cry from the bleakly haunting one devised for I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG)! Moreover, there is an oddly paradoxical coda in which bible-thumping/bigamist prisoner Charles Middleton (whose wonderful performance anticipates Boris Karloff's and John Carradine's in two John Ford classics, THE LOST PATROL [1934] and THE GRAPES OF WRATH [1940] respectively!) is asked by Dix why he did not join them in the getaway when he had the chance – and the deadpan reply comes that one can escape from jail but not from (juggling between) three wives!
Richard Dix is a legendary(!) convict whose hold over the chain gang is softened with the unexpected arrival of his idolizing younger brother (for killing the man who "ratted" on his sibling!). Dix's ripe acting has not worn well the passage of time (truth be told, neither has Paul Muni's from the rival film but the latter's was generally put at the service of better movies, so one tends to accept it more readily!) – even his Oscar-nominated turn in CIMARRON (1931), a Best Picture Oscar winner no less, is apt to raise a chuckle nowadays! That said, of the number of several unwatched efforts of his that I own, I look forward to the 1929 version of the much-filmed 'old dark house' comedy-thriller SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, the 1932 Hollywood satire THE LOST SQUADRON (with Erich von Stroheim more or less playing himself!), the early British sci-fi THE TUNNEL from 1935, and his seven appearances in the noir series of the 1940s THE WHISTLER.
Anyway, the prisoners here are utilized in the building of roads (hence the title) and the severe treatment of them stems from slackening that could jeopardize meeting the deadline. To this end, the contractor involved purchases a sweat-box (subsequently made famous by David Lean's THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI [1957]) where hot-tempered convicts can be isolated to 'cool off' – however, the confined space and even more restricting shackles sometimes result in the occupant strangling himself to death (the film, in fact, starts off with real-life newspaper headlines reporting just such an incident)! After Dix's brother himself does a stretch in it, the hero is forced to compromise: if he simmers down the unrest, thus finish the road on time, the younger man is transferred to an office job with the warden but, of course, the other prisoners begin to taunt him thereafter for being "yellow"!
Eventually, the kid learns that his sibling has been made a lifer and determines to free him – the situation, however, escalates into a mass break-out and the cells themselves set on fire! When the authorities close in for the hunt, naturally, they blame everything on the two brothers! In the end, the convicts are all apprehended, with Dix going back of his own accord and carrying his injured brother (he had actually been shot with an airgun by some local children!). The contractor then screams for Dix's blood, but the kindly warden promptly produces evidence of the man's guilt in the sweat-box scandal (a happy ending which, again, is a far cry from the bleakly haunting one devised for I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG)! Moreover, there is an oddly paradoxical coda in which bible-thumping/bigamist prisoner Charles Middleton (whose wonderful performance anticipates Boris Karloff's and John Carradine's in two John Ford classics, THE LOST PATROL [1934] and THE GRAPES OF WRATH [1940] respectively!) is asked by Dix why he did not join them in the getaway when he had the chance – and the deadpan reply comes that one can escape from jail but not from (juggling between) three wives!