Up the River

This article is about the 1930 film. For the 1938 film, see Up the River (1938 film). For the phrase, see Sing Sing. For the card game, see Oh, hell.

Up the River
Poster with Claire Luce and Humphrey Bogart
Directed byJohn Ford
Written byMaurine Dallas Watkins
Produced byWilliam Fox
StarringSpencer Tracy
Humphrey Bogart
CinematographyJoseph H. August
Edited byFrank E. Hull
Music byJames F. Hanley
Joseph McCarthy
Distributed byFox Film Corporation
Release date
  • October 12, 1930 (1930-10-12)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Up the River is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, and starring Claire Luce, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. The plot concerns escaped convicts, as well as a female convict. It was the feature film debut role of both Tracy and Bogart. Despite Bogart being billed fourth (under top-billed Tracy, Claire Luce and Warren Hymer), Tracy's and Bogart's roles were almost equally large, and this is the only film in which they appeared together. Up the River is also Bogart's only film directed by John Ford. Bogart's image is featured with Luce on some of the film's posters rather than Tracy's since Bogart was the romantic lead with Luce. Fox remade the film in 1938 starring Preston Foster and Tony Martin playing their roles.