La isla de los condenados

No need to recap the plot. The movie's a surprisingly flat crime drama from hard edge Warner Bros. There's very little to comment on since the acting, directing, and staging are so colorless and pedestrian, to say the least. To bad that the male leads-- Litel, Oliver, and Purcell-- fail to inject any needed spark to heighten the proceedings. In fact, no one in front or behind the camera appears particularly motivated. Note in passing, how mildly racketeer Brady is portrayed (never killed or hurt anybody) so that his eventual reform goes down easily. That's Production Code Hollywood again taking the easy way out-- no awkward moral threads left dangling. Too bad actress Sheridan is given no chance to demonstrate her patented brand of sassy spunk. But I guess that would come later, and a good thing for the studio. Then too, it looks like the only glimpses we get of the real Alcatraz are by air, which are not very atmospheric. Anyway, this is WB's normally expert gangster department operating at snoozer level despite the promising title.

Lousy story and dialogue to go along with moderate to poor performances, most notably Maguire, make this B movie more like a D or F!

The attempted kidnapping scene is written and directed so poorly that it seems like a 12 year old boy did it!

The courtroom finale is beyond belief phony, but it all gets wrapped up nicely so that the running time is short enough for any double feature.

Ann Sheridan stands out as a movie star here, even if those around her don't!

Alcatraz Island (1937)

** (out of 4)

This Warner "B" picture isn't well known today and it's not really any good but I guess you can give it credit for being the first film to take place on Alcatraz (which was built three years earlier). The story has a racketeer (John Litel) being railroaded into prison where he eventually catches up with the man who tried to kidnap his daughter. After being him he's sent to Alcatraz where they eventually meet again and this time the kidnapper is killed but the racketeer must try and prove his innocence even though everyone knows he hated the guy. Like the gangster drama, the prison film was usually a very good one for Warner but that's not the case here as the film, even at 64-minutes, is just too dull to be that entertaining. McGann's direction really drags things down as there's never any energy in the film and things remain pretty slow from start to finish. The screenplay by Crane Wilbur also doesn't do much as we get a pretty familiar story of a criminal wanting to do good for his new relationship with his daughter yet he keeps getting into trouble all of which is due to either someone else or someone trying to frame him. The movie follows the typical guidelines of a prison drama but the screenplay just doesn't have any edge, soul or even any real surprises. The final five minutes takes place in a courtroom and how everything ends is among the worst endings I've ever seen and something that I'm sure Ed Wood would laugh at. I wasn't too impressed with Litel in his role but at least Ann Sheridan makes a good impression in her supporting bit. Mary Maguire, Gordon Oliver and George E. Stone round out the cast.

Not a lot happens in the first twenty minutes. Then, they get gat brady (john litel) on income tax charges from hidden money. He's sent off to prison, and his girl flo (sheridan) moves into brady's flat to keep an eye on his daughter. But when a thug tries to kidnap the daughter, the thug ends up in jail with brady. Then, brady gets framed for a murder, and must prove his innocence. (although he probably shouldn't have made threats in front of the warden!) some scenes which may or may not really be alcatraz.... it had just opened a couple years before. Movie is okay... a pretty early, realistic look at prison life. And a viable story, for the most part. Directed by bill mcgann. Was nominated for stolen life, but also worked on key largo and treasure of the sierra madre. Story by crane wilbur.

Below-par Warner's B movie. True, this is a mostly decent production, with Litel, railroaded into Alcatraz by a judge who doesn't care about plea bargains. He gives one of his solid performances. However, most of the lines spoken by other actors are declaimed rather than spoken and the juvenile leads are truly awful.