Product Details

• Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Mel Blanc, John Litel
• Directors: Crane Wilbur, Frank Tashlin, Lloyd Bacon
• Writers: Edward Everett Hale, Forrest Barnes, George Manuell, Humphrey Cobb, John Bright
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: July 18, 2006
• Run Time: 70 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FI9OC2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,511 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #40 in	Movies & TV > Classics > Classic Stars > Bogart, Humphrey
  #55 in	Movies & TV > Mystery & Suspense > Crime > Prison Films

• For more information about "San Quentin" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Do the crime, do the time. But what happens during the long years spent behind the walls of San Quentin? The penitentiary's new yard captain wants to make those years a time of rehabilitation rather than punishment. But not everyone's buying it. "He's just another copper to me," snarls inmate Red Kennedy. Humphrey Bogart portrays Red, continuing his climb to stardom in this brisk film that's one of a string of Depression-era works combining gangster-movie elements with a Big House setting. Studio mainstay Pat O'Brien plays Steve Jameson, whose carrot-and-stick reforms begin to change Red's thinking. An inmates' strike and a scripture-quoting con who swipes a rifle are among the troubles Jameson faces. And Red is another as he reverts to his old ways and makes a violent break for freedom.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Depression-era Prison Film!!!, June 21, 2006

By	Nobody (Nowheresville) - See all my reviews

This is a great depression prison era film starring Pat O'Brien and the featuring the then emerging movie legend Humphrey Bogart.It's a must see!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cliched Prison Drama, August 12, 2006

By	Douglas M - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

"San Quentin", a 1937 Warner Brothers programmer, is a cliched story set in an around the prison of the same name. Pat O'Brien plays an army officer assigned to the prison to establish discipline and reform using army methods. Barton Maclane plays the guard he replaces who resents him, Humphrey Bogart plays the small time hoodlum who "only needs a break" to reform and Ann Sheridan plays his sister who O'Brien falls for. Joe Sawyer plays the hardened criminal. All of the actors are typecast although Bogart's role is more sympathetic than usual at this time and accordingly offers him a bit more range. The film is fast moving in typical Warner's fashion but the script and direction are not sharp enough to arise above the cliches. The film's scenes of prison life are cursory with no real sense of desperation or monotony, so well depicted in better films like "20,000 Years in Sing Sing". The melodramatics of the routine plot bog the film down. This probably was the first film which gave Ann Sheridan a leg up the ladder and she introduces a good song "How Could You" in a nightclub scene. She has a warm contralto and puts the song over with great charm and personality.

The quality of the film print is first rate and the DVD comes with many extras including a documentary about the advent of the prison fim, a worthwhile commentary about the film itself, not that it really warrants it, an excellent Porky Pig cartoon satirising the gangster and a Warner Brother's blooper reel from 1937. The blooper reels are always interesting if you know your Warner's films.

If the DVD is purchased as part of the Warner's Tough Guy Collection, it is good value but otherwise, there are better films in this genre available.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Standard tough prison melodrama, competently done..., January 12, 2007

By	Roberto Frangie "Robert" (Leon, Gto. Mexico) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In "San Quentin," Bogart returns quickly to a life of crime... Trying without success to add some depth and meaning to a role which offered little of either, Bogart is a convicted robber sent to San Quentin and assigned to a road gang as a rehabilitated step instituted by the prison yard captain, Pat O'Brien...

When Bogart is maliciously informed, through the efforts of the bad Barton MacLane, that O'Brien has less than honorable intentions toward his sister, Ann Sheridan, he breaks out and shoots O'Brien, though not seriously...

When he finds that he has made a mistake, he decides to give himself up, but...

"San Quentin," though far from one of Bogart's best roles, is almost always included in his film retrospectives as a favorite choice of his fans...