Those High Grey Walls (1939)





Dr. MacAuley, a respected and beloved country doctor, is sent to Fillmore prison for removing a bullet from a young man who was escaping from the police, a man whom he had delivered as a baby many years before. At Fillmore prison, he is assigned to work in the jute mill after the prison doctor, Frank Norton, denies his request to work in the hospital. Dr. MacAuley's co-worker in the mill, Lindy Lindstron, suffers a heart attack, and Dr. Norton declares him beyond help. Dr. MacAuley administers adrenaline, and Lindstrom recovers, and news of the recovery spreads, leading the fellow convicts to seek Dr. MacAuley's help with their real and imaginary illnesses. Dr. Norton requests Dr. MacAuley's transfer to the hospital. Lindstrom, in severe pain, begs Dr. MacAuley to give him an overdose of sedative and offers him $10,000 that he claims to have hidden "outside". Dr. MacAuley refuses, but is so moved by Lindstrom's suffering that he discusses the possibility of a mercy death with Dr. Norton. Nightingale, a prison trusty, overhears Lindstrom's request and promises to obtain the sedative in return for the $10,000. The next day, Lindstrom is found dead, and Dr. Norton, who dismissed Dr. MacAuley's request, believes that Dr. MacAuley gave Lindstrom the fatal dose.


Books with substantial mentioning of Those High Grey Walls

James Robert Parish
Prison Pictures from Hollywood, Plots, Critiques, Casts and Credits for 293 Theatrical and Made-for-Television Releases
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 1991

Books with an entry on Those High Grey Walls

Larry Langman and Daniel Finn
A Guide to American Crime Films of the Thirties
Westport, Connecticut - London, 1995