The Big House is a 1930 American pre-Code prison drama film directed by George Hill, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and starring Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone and Robert Montgomery.

Kent (Robert Montgomery), a drunk driver who carelessly kills a man, is sentenced to ten years for manslaughter.

In an overcrowded prison designed for 1800 and actually holding 3000, he is placed in a cell with Butch (Wallace Beery) and Morgan (Chester Morris), the two leaders of the inmates.

When Butch is ordered into solitary confinement for sparking a protest over the prison food, he passes along his knife before being searched.

Irving Thalberg gave the go ahead for the screenplay and assigned Frances Marion to work with George Hill.

[8] Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times described it as "a film in which the direction, the photography, the microphone work and the magnificent acting take precedence over the negligible story.

[10] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, "So expert are many of the scenes, so effective the photography, so direct and spare the dialogue, that certain obvious, silly, and dull moments may almost be overlooked.

"[11] Wallace Beery was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Big House, cementing his career in sound films, and won the following year for The Champ (1931).

Leonard Maltin's TV Movies & Video Guide (1989 edition) also put the rating at 3 (out of 4 stars), describing it as "[T]he original prison drama" and indicating that "this set the pattern for all later copies; it's still good, hard-bitten stuff with one of Beery's best tough-guy roles".

In the third edition (2015) of his Classic Movie Guide, Maltin also mentioned the surviving French and Spanish-language versions and added that "Charles Boyer stars in the former".

Shipman describes Wallace Beery and Chester Morris as "two old lags" and Robert Montgomery as "the wealthy guy too weak for the system".

Leslie Halliwell in the 5th edition (1985) of his Film and Video Guide, rated it 2 stars out of 4 and described it as an "[A]rchetypal prison melodrama and a significant advance in form for early talkies."