The Gray Brother
Cast & Crew
Sidney Olcott
Joseph Marquis
Sidney D'albrook
Helen Ferguson
Elsie Mcleod
Ann Egleston
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
With the intention of contrasting older, harsh methods of treatment of prisoners with the reforms advocated by the Mutual Welfare League (a prisoners' organization based on the honor system), the story is told of two boys - one poor and one rich - and their prison experiences. The Poor Boy, a victim of his slum environment, goes to a reformatory for a minor offense and there learns to become a perfect crook. Thanks to a stool pigeon, he is eventually sent to a prison, which is conducted under traditional methods of lockstep, prison labor, silence, contract labor, brutal punishment and torture. Meanwhile, The Rich Boy is sentenced to the same prison - now under a newer, more humane regime - for forging his father's signature. He becomes friends with The Poor Boy, who had been released and returned to prison for assaulting the stool pigeon. The Smiler, another member of The Poor Boy's gang, is unjustly condemned to electrocution for the murder of the stool pigeon. Although they are trusted members of the Mutual Welfare League, the boys escape and find evidence that clears The Smiler; but they are too late, and an innocent man is executed. For their efforts, however, the boys are paroled, to the joy of their waiting sweethearts.
Director
Sidney Olcott
Cast
Joseph Marquis
Sidney D'albrook
Helen Ferguson
Elsie Mcleod
Ann Egleston
Helen Lindroth
Edwards Davis
Vivienne Osborne
Tammany Young
Thomas Brooks
Cecil Kern
Harold Thomas
Ralph Delmore
John B. Cooke
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film was completed in December 1919 or January 1920, but no evidence that it was ever released under the title The Gray Brother has been located. It is listed in the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30 (F2.4621) as The Right Way, under which title it was distributed by Producers Security Exchange in 1921. It was also reviewed in 1921 as Making Good. A re-edited version of the film was re-issued in 1928 under the title Within Prison Walls. Thomas Mott Osborne, who was a warden of Sing Sing Prison and of the U.S. Naval Prison, is credited as producer in the AFI Catalog listing for The Right Way and as personal supervisor in reviews of the film's general release in November 1921, but only as a writer by sources from 1919 and 1920. Actress Ann Egleston's name is spelled Annie Ecleston in reviews of the film's 1921 release.
