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Released July 26, 1940
Featuring Shemp Howard (Solo)
RKO
64.2 min. (Feature Film)

Five millionaires arrive at the State Penetentiary: Dr. Bill Collins for drunk driving manslaughter, James Brent & Sidney Keats for stock fraud, and Bruce Vander & Harold Kellogg, two naive businessmen involved in one of Brent's and Keats' schemes. The five share a dormitory cell with three other convicts, among them the Professor (Shemp Howard) and Happy (Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards). Nick Burton (Lee Tracy), an apparently good-hearted man serving time for armed robbery, has a gift for gab and getting things done, which has earned the respect of the prison population. Dr. Collins is assigned as a medic in the prison hospital, and at Burton's urging, decides to continue his previous research in finding a vaccine for Malta fever. But Burton also takes on the role of confidence man, assisting Conway & Keats in a scheme to unload fake copper mine stock on fellow inmates. Do Burton's sympathies truly lie in helping his fellow convicts, or earning a fast buck?

Shemp Howard and Cliff Edwards round out the main cast, but most of the film's humor revolves around the fish-out-of-water attempts by Vander & Kellogg to fit into prison life. They simply cannot understand why filet mignon isn't on the mess hall menu.

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Avg. Rating: [7.40/10]
 
MILLIONAIRES IN PRISON on IMDb

Lee Tracy
Nick Burton

Truman Bradley
Dr. Bill Collins

Linda Hayes
Helen Hewitt

Thurston Hall
Harold Kellogg

Raymond Walburn
Bruce Vander

Shemp Howard
Professor

Horace McMahon
Sylvester Ogden 'SOS' Schofield

Chester Clute
Sidney Keats

Morgan Conway
James Brent

Thomas E. Jackson
Warden Tom Hammond

Selmer Jackson
Dr. Harry Lindsay

Virginia Vale
May Thomas

Charles C. Wilson
R. J. Reynolds

Hal K. Dawson
Mike, reporter

John Dilson
Man at train station

Leo Cleary
Deputy on train

Dell Henderson
Dell, deputy on train

John Sheehan
Deputy on train

Frank O'Connor
Prison guard

Chester Tallman
Turnkey guard

Charlie Hall
Cockney convict

Herman Marks
Taunting convict

Sammy Stein
Guard in mess hall

Kenneth Harlan
Jerry Connell

Joe Devlin
Vince Connell

Al Morino
Convict

Sam Lufkin
Convict

Anthony Warde
Max, convict

George Magrill
Guard in yard

Vinton Hayworth
Windy Windsor

Cy Schindell
Red Vernon

Grace Lenard
Marie Brody

Grady Sutton
Jock Vander

Carole Wayne
SOS' wife

Larry McGrath
Guard in visitors room

Donald Kerr
Prison library clerk

Baldwin Cooke
Mess hall trustee

Richard Cramer
Dick, guard with menu

Frank Mills
Dominick, prison chef

Eddie Hart
Reporter


Lee S. Marcus
Executive Producer

Lynn Root
Screenplay

Frank Fenton
Screenplay

Jerome Cady
Screenplay

Harry J. Wild
Director of Photography

Theron Warth
Film Editor

Van Nest Polglase
Art Director

Carroll Clark
Associate Art Director

Roy Webb
Musical Score

Buddy G. DeSylva
Music and Lyrics

Renie
Wardrobe

Harry Mancke
Assistant Director

Vernon L. Walker
Special Effects


















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