Other highly dramatic films in the crime genre were actually a subgenre - the prison crime film. These were focused on the regimented setting for criminals - the prison and life behind bars. Prison films have portrayed the tremendous impact prison life had on prisoners as well as on wardens and guards. They were often populated by vindictive wardens, innocent men wrongly imprisoned, or stool-pigeons. Themes have also included methods of evasion, attempts to escape or prove innocence, social consciousness and concern about the prison system, and the death-row experience. One of the earliest prison films was the much-imitated, melodramatic The Big House (1930) with Wallace Beery as the prison's top con-man.