The Big House (1930) avi

Twenty-four-year old Kent Marlowe is just beginning his ten-year sentence in prison for vehicular manslaughter. Kent, not seeing himself as a "criminal" and who has the support of a loving family, is nervous and scared about his incarceration, especially in that he will be sharing a cell in the already overcrowded prison with John Morgan and Butch Schmidt - better known as Machine Gun Butch - who are serving time for robbery and murder respectively. Kent's cellmates are renowned for being the toughest inmates in the institution, Butch who carries a knife with him where ever he goes. Kent quickly learns that the unwritten codes amongst the inmates are not to whine and don't be a stool pigeon to the authorities. When an opportunity arises, one of the inmates manages to escape, his plan to get back at one of his cellmates who he believes double-crossed him. But on the outside, his view of life changes, which includes a possible change in allegiances to his former prison colleagues, especially his former cell mates.