Castle on the Hudson (1940)

Interesting facts

Castle on the Hudson is a 1940 American prison film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring John Garfield, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. The film was based on the book Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, written by Lewis E. Lawes, on whom the warden in the film was based. Castle on the Hudson is a remake of the 1932 Spencer Tracy prison film 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, also based on Lawes's book.

Production

One year earlier, John Garfield had refused to play a role in Invisible Stripes (1939) as George Raft's younger brother, and this had forced Warner Bros. Pictures to place him on the first of his 11 total suspensions while at the studio. It was only after Warners agreed to allow Garfield to play the lead role in a film based on Maxwell Anderson's 1927 play Saturday's Children that Garfield agreed to first act in Castle on the Hudson.

Before filming commenced, Garfield demanded that the book's original ending, in which his character is killed in the electric chair for a crime that he did not commit, be retained in the film's script. He also pressed for a $10,000 bonus, and the studio agreed to both demands.

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