Public Domain Movies

Condemned is a 1929 American pre-Code melodrama, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Ronald Colman, Ann Harding, Dudley Digges, Louis Wolheim, William Elmer, and Wilhelm von Brincken. The movie was adapted by Sidney Howard from the novel by Blair Niles.

Set against the oppressive backdrop of Devil’s Island in French Guiana, the film follows Michel (Ronald Colman), a newly arrived prisoner facing a lengthy sentence in the notoriously brutal penal colony. Michel, however, is no typical inmate; his relaxed demeanour and easy charm quickly ingratiate him with fellow prisoners, including the affable Jacques (Louis Wolheim), and eventually earn him a privileged position as houseboy to the camp’s warden, Vidal (Dudley Digges). Vidal is a deeply possessive man, particularly when it comes to his much younger wife (Ann Harding), whom he treats less as a partner and more as a symbol of status. Isolated and emotionally stranded, Madame Vidal finds herself drawn to Michel’s charisma, sparking a doomed romance that inevitably attracts the warden’s suspicion. Once their affair is uncovered, Michel is thrown into solitary confinement, escapes, and ultimately becomes the target of a desperate manhunt through the island’s humid, treacherous jungle terrain.

Cast
Ronald Colman - Michel
Ann Harding - Madame Vidal
Dudley Digges - Vidal
Louis Wolheim - Jacques
William Elmer - Pierre
Wilhelm von Brincken - Vidal's orderly (as William Vaughn)
Albert Kingsley - Felix
Constantine Romanoff - Brute Convict
Harry Ginsberg - Inmate
Bud Sommers - Inmate
Stephen Selznick - Inmate
Baldy Biuddle - Inmate
John George - Inmate
John Schwartz - Inmate