Tommy Gordan, a cocky career thief, is finally nabbed by New York authorities after pulling a big heist. He is sentenced to at least seven years at the Sing Sing prison on the shores of the Hudson River. He meets warden Walter Long and settles into the dull routine of prison life, assigned to work in a shoe factory with fellow inmate Steve Rockford.
Tommy obeys a superstitious rule to never pull a job on a Saturday. Steve plots with Tommy to escape the prison, but when Steve realizes that it is Saturday night, he refuses to participate. Rockford's plans go awry, and he dies while attempting escape.
When Long receives news that Tommy's girlfriend Kay Manners is near death following an automobile accident, he offers Tommy one day of unsupervised parole, just long enough to visit Kay. Although the parole day occurs on a Saturday, Tommy gratefully accepts the offer.
When he reaches New York on his parole day, Tommy visits Kay, who tells him that his dishonest lawyer Ed Crowley threw her from a moving vehicle when she rejected his advances. Tommy retrieves a gun, intent on murdering Crowley, but Kay pleads with him to relent, and he surrenders the gun to her. When Crowley appears, Tommy attacks him and the men become embroiled in a vicious fight. Kay, who now has Tommy's gun, shoots Crowley dead. Knowing that he will be implicated in the murder, Tommy takes shelter in a hideout with some associates.
Warden Long, surprised and disappointed that Tommy did not return as promised, comes under intense public scrutiny for his lenient policy and is asked to resign. Tommy's associate arranges for him to secretly leave the country on a tramp steamer, but as Tommy boards the ship, he learns that Long's job is at stake and returns to Sing Sing, vindicating Long.
Kay, having returned to health, desperately pleads with the authorities to believe that it was she who pulled the trigger, but Tommy stands trial, is found guilty and sentenced to death in the electric chair. He is transferred to death row and all of his court appeals are exhausted. When the time for Tommy's execution comes, Kay makes one last appeal to the warden, but Tommy claims that she is lying in order to protect him. He explains to her that if she is found guilty, they will both be imprisoned for many years and will never be together, so this is his last chance to do something good by allowing her to find a decent man and live a normal life. He slowly walks toward the execution room, accompanied by a solemn Long and the prison chaplain.
One year earlier, John Garfield had refused to play a role in Invisible Stripes (1939) as George Raft's younger brother, and this had forced Warner Bros. to place him on the first of his 11 total suspensions while at the studio. It was only after Warner Bros. agreed to allow Garfield to play the lead role in a film based on Maxwell Anderson's 1927 play Saturday's Children that Garfield agreed to first act in Castle on the Hudson.[4]
Before filming commenced, Garfield demanded that the book's original ending, in which his character is killed in the electric chair for a crime that he did not commit, be retained in the film's script. He also pressed for a $10,000 bonus, and the studio agreed to both demands.[5]
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic B. R. Crisler wrote: "This is merely a routine notice that Mr. John Garfield, formerly of the Group Theatre, who was recently sentenced to a term in Warner Brothers pictures, is still in prison. Don't be misled by any announcement you may have read that Mr. Garfield had managed to stage a successful break with the aid of a saw smuggled into his contract, and don't let the fancy title, 'Castle on the Hudson,' arouse shining hopes, either. ... Mr. Garfield, who seems to be wearing a little thin, for some reason—can it be possible that he has been a trifle overbuilt as a screen personality?—is the tough but golden-hearted prisoner who goes to the death-house trailing wisecracks like cigarette ashes."[6]
Los Angeles Times reviewer John L. Scott wrote: "The picture's virility is undoubted and performances are realistic. ... Whether it will have a wide appeal is a question because of its drab subject."[7]
According to his biographer, Garfield was disappointed that "the critics did not think more highly of the film or his performance." It also seemed that Garfield had been continually trying to "prove that he had far more range as an actor" than Warner Bros. had allowed him to demonstrate. When the studio assigned him another shallow tough-guy role in Flight Angels (1940), he rejected it and was again placed on suspension.[8]
Pat O'Brien took legal action against the Globe Theatre in New York during its run of Castle on the Hudson because his name was billed below that of Garfield on the theater's marquee.[9]
Legacy
In 1977, the Greater Ossining Arts Council hosted a film festival under the title of "Stars in Stripes Forever" that featured films shot or set at Sing Sing. The films included Castle on the Hudson and others such as Invisible Stripes (1939), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932).[10]
^Crisler, B. R. (1940-03-04). "The Screen: 'Castle on Hudson,' With John Garfield, Pat O'Brien, Burgess Meredith, Ann Sheridan, Opens at Globe". The New York Times. p. 11.
^Scott, John L. (1940-02-23). "Melodrama, Comedy Vie for Favor". Los Angeles Times. p. 10, Part II.
