Alcatraz Island

'B' crime drama from Warner Bros. that stars John Litel, Gordon Oliver, Mary Maguire, and Ann Sheridan, to say nothing of a great supporting cast. The plot has awesomely-named racketeer Gat Brady (Litel) sent to Alcatraz where he feuds with a former criminal associate, while trying to keep his daughter (Maguire) out of danger. Oliver plays the lawyer who puts Gat away but winds up trying to help him. Sheridan is Gat's moll with a heart of gold.

Litel's not a perfect fit for a rough gangster type but he manages to make it work. Sheridan does well in one of many forgettable pictures she made before becoming a big star. Oliver and Maguire are fine, if unimpressive. The rest of the cast includes a bunch of recognizable faces like George E. Stone, Dick Purcell, Ben Welden, Addison Richards, Vladimir Sokoloff, Janet Shaw, Charles Towbridge, Peggy Bates, and Veda Ann Borg. It's a good pic for what it is - a relatively short, fast-paced programmer with a good cast playing out a familiar story as best they can. The scene depicting convicts going through an early version of a metal detector was pretty fascinating to me. This movie's not going to change your life or anything but there are worse ways to kill an hour.

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.

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.

Mobster moneyman Gat Brady is found not guilty of racketeering after a juror has been bribed. His daughter Annabel Sloane gets kicked out of school after her father's identity comes to light. He hires Miss Tolliver to be her teacher. Gat gets hit with tax evasion and the judge hits him even harder. There is an attempt at kidnapping Ann and Red Carroll is convicted of the crime. He is sent to Leavenworth which happens to be where Brady is imprisoned.

This is very much a ripped-from-the-headlines episode based on the Al Capone conviction. Of course, they have changed it a lot. There is a problem in this movie. It's trying to make Brady the rooting interest when he isn't that in the beginning. He does nothing great for redemption but the prison section is still compelling. I guess Ann is meant to humanize him but it's not enough. All in all, it's a functional crime B-movie with good criminal intensity.

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!