John Garfield is a tough, smart-alec gangster who draws a 25 - 30 year stretch in Sing Sing for knocking over a jewelry store. While he combats the discipline inside the 'castle', his loyal girl friend (Ann Sheridan) tries to effect his release. She is seriously injured in an auto crackup, which gives the parole-minded and humane warden (Pat O'Brien) a chance to let Garfield loose on honor system to see the girl.

Excerpt from Variety located HERE

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John Garfield finds himself typecast by Warner Brothers once again in Castle on the Hudson (1940), a remarkably faithful remake of the Spencer Tracy vehicle 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932). In Tracy's old role, Garfield stars as Tommy Gordon, a jewel thief serving a 25-year-minimum sentence but expecting his political pals on the outside to help spring him from prison. Pat O'Brien plays the reform-minded yet kind-hearted warden who helps Tommy see the error of his ways, and Ann Sheridan (in the role previously played by Bette Davis) is the faithful girl-he-left-behind.

Garfield was on voluntary suspension from Warner Bros. because of dissatisfaction with roles the studio was offering him (usually criminals or prison inmates) when he was sent the script for Castle. His reported response when offered one more prison saga was, "Parole me!" It was director-screenwriter-producer Robert Rossen, a friend of Garfield's, who persuaded him to take on Tracy's old role. Garfield agreed to do the film provided the studio would not change the original ending, which had Tommy going to the electric chair to cover for the girlfriend, who had shot and killed a treacherous lawyer. When the film opened, The New York Times began its review by joking, "This is merely a routine notice that Mr. John Garfield, formerly of the Group Theatre, who was recently sentenced to a term in Warner Bros. Pictures, is still in prison."

Excerpt from TCM located HERE