Up the River Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy (1930) One of the weirdest movies ever made, this early John Ford talkie is billed as a comedy about a prison baseball game. In truth, there's not a single funny scene in the entire film and almost no footage of a baseball game at all. It's actually a disjointed story of two inmates who escape to eat dinner with Bogie's nice middle-class family, then they get caught and go back to prison. Bogart is the good guy, a prison trusty who doesn't wear a uniform and runs the reception desk for new female inmates. Tracy is a loudmouth with an attitude and an odd, unexplained accent. I highly recommend this movie if you ever have nothing else to do, although it's worth a look to see Bogart and Tracy at the start of their careers. Rating: C.