{{short description|1933 film by Edward L. Cahn}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = Laughter in Hell | image = | caption = | director = [[Edward L. Cahn]] | producer = [[Carl Laemmle, Jr.]] | writer = [[Tom Reed (screenwriter)|Tom Reed]] | based_on = {{basedon|''Laughter in Hell''|[[Jim Tully]]}} | starring = [[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]]<br>[[Gloria Stuart]] | music = | cinematography = [[John Stumar]] | editing = [[Philip Cahn]] | distributor = [[Universal Pictures]] | released = {{Film date|1933|01|12}} | runtime = 70 minutes | country = United States | language = | budget = }} '''''Laughter in Hell''''' is a 1933 American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|pre-Code]] [[drama film]] directed by [[Edward L. Cahn]] and starring [[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]]. The film's title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many Pre-Code films.<ref>Doherty. pg 103</ref> Adapted from the 1932 novel of the same name by [[Jim Tully]], the film was inspired in part by ''[[I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang]]'' and was part of a series of films depicting men in [[chain gang]]s following the success of that film.<ref>Doherty. pg. 162</ref> O'Brien plays a railroad engineer who kills his wife and her lover in a jealous rage and is sent to prison.<ref name="tcm">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110913153841/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81001/Laughter-in-Hell/ Laughter in Hell], tcm.com, accessed October 12, 2010.</ref><ref name="DH167">Doherty. pg 167</ref> The movie received a mixed review in ''[[The New York Times]]'' upon its release.<ref name="NYT">[[Mordaunt Hall|Hall, Mordaunt]]. [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9506E7D71F38EF3ABC4A53DFB7668388629EDE Laughter in Hell (1933) - A Chain-Gang Melodrama.], ''The New York Times'', January 2, 1933, accessed October 12, 2010.</ref> Although long considered lost, the film was recently preserved and was screened at the [[American Cinematheque]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles]], in October 2012.
The dead man's brother ends up being the warden of the prison and subjects O'Brien's character to significant abuse.<ref name="DH167"/> O'Brien and several other characters revolt, killing the warden and escaping from the prison. The film drew controversy for its [[lynching]] scene where several black men were hanged. Contrary to reports, only blacks were hanged in this scene, though the actual executions occurred off-camera (we see instead reaction shots of the guards and other prisoners). The ''New Age'' (an African American weekly newspaper) film critic praised the scene for being courageous enough to depict the atrocities that were occurring in some southern states.<ref name="DH167"/>
==Plot== O'Brien plays an Irish mine worker, Barney Slaney. Later Barney gets a job as a fireman on the local train for an engineer named Mileaway. He gets married, but finds his wife having an affair with Grover Perkins, a childhood nemesis. Barney loses control and kills them both. He turns himself in and receives a life sentence of hard labor. Barney quickly finds out that the brother of the man he killed, Ed Perkins, will be in charge of his chain gang, and the brother bullies him repeatedly. While the prisoners dig graves, Barney knocks Ed unconscious and drops him into one of the open graves. He then escapes during the ensuing mayhem, in which the warden is killed. He breaks out of the police dragnet, and hides at a farm which recently had a pestilence infection. He meets a woman named Lorraine, and they run away together.<ref name="tcm"/><ref name="DH167"/>
==Cast== *[[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]] as Barney Slaney *Tommy Conlon as Barney as a boy *[[Gloria Stuart]] as Lorraine *[[Berton Churchill]] as Mike Slaney *[[Merna Kennedy]] as MaryBell Evans *[[Douglass Dumbrille]] as Ed Perkins *[[Dick Winslow]] as Ed Perkins as a boy *Arthur Vinton as Grover Perkins *[[Tom Brown (actor)|Tom Brown]] as Barton *[[Lew Kelly]] as Mileaway *[[Clarence Muse]] as Abraham Jackson *[[Noel Madison]] as Brownfield *[[Tom Ricketts]] as Judge * [[William H. Turner (actor)|William H. Turner]] as I.N. Tree
==Production== The railroad scenes were filmed on the [[Sierra Railroad]] in [[Tuolumne County, California]].<ref>{{cite book | last =Jensen | first =Larry | authorlink = | title =Hollywood's Railroads: Sierra Railroad | publisher =Cochetopa Press | series = | volume = Two| edition = | date =2018 | location =Sequim, Washington | pages =10 | language = | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=c-RNswEACAAJ&q=Hollywood%27s+Railroads | doi = | id = | isbn =9780692064726 | mr = | zbl = | jfm = }}</ref>
==Pre-Code uncensored scenes== A controversial lynching scene where several black men were hanged, gained headlines after the film was released. The ''[[Motion Picture Herald]]'' expressed concern that the events depicted could be very difficult for some African Americans to watch. Writing in ''New Age'' (an African American weekly newspaper) Vere E. Johns praised the producers for depicting the scene and in so doing, publicizing the atrocities that were happening in some southern states.<ref name="DH167"/> Johns also disagreed with the initial reports in the ''Herald'' which stated that only blacks were lynched, Johns stated (erroneously) that both blacks and whites were lynched in the picture.<ref name="DH167"/>
Although Universal Pictures released ''Laughter in Hell'' with the lynching scene intact, like many American films of the time the film was subject to cuts by [[Film censorship in the United States|city and state film censorship boards]]. Several censorship boards including New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Chicago removed the lynching scene, allowing only indications that a hanging was about to take place.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Ellen C. |title=Cinema Civil Rights: Regulation, Repression, and Race in the Classical Hollywood Era |publisher =Rutgers University Press |year=2015 |pages=14–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27fQBQAAQBAJ&q=%22gritty+laughter+in+hell%22&pg=PA1722 |isbn=978-0-8135-7136-2}}</ref>
==Reception== Mordaunt Hall, writing for ''The New York Times'' praised the acting, the characterizations, action sequences, and some of the banter, but was not impressed with the storyline.<ref name="NYT"/>
==References== ;Notes {{reflist}}
;Bibliography *Doherty, Thomas Patrick. ''Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934''. New York: Columbia University Press 1999. {{ISBN|0-231-11094-4}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|0024247}}
{{Edward L. Cahn}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laughter In Hell}} [[Category:1933 films]] [[Category:1933 crime drama films]] [[Category:1933 American films]] [[Category:1933 English-language films]] [[Category:1930s prison films]] [[Category:1930s rediscovered films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:American crime drama films]] [[Category:American prison drama films]] [[Category:English-language crime drama films]] [[Category:Films about adultery in the United States]] [[Category:Films based on American novels]] [[Category:Films directed by Edward L. Cahn]] [[Category:Films set in Tennessee]] [[Category:Rediscovered American films]] [[Category:Universal Pictures films]]