Seven Miles from Alcatraz

James Craig and Frank Jenks escape "Seven Miles from Alcatraz" in this 1942 propaganda film also starring Bonita Granville and John Banner.

Champ and Jimbo (Craig and Jenks) escape from Alcatraz, as the title says, and manage to get to a lighthouse. They walk into an interesting situation. One of the employees is on the side of the Nazis and feeding messages to the Germans about a submarine - it seems the Germans are trying to invade San Francisco. When they realize what's happening, the crooks and the people at the lighthouse band together, as the Nazis themselves show up.

Bonita Granville marvelously underplays, very different for her, and lets James Craig overplay, not only his role, but the narration as well, with every single line reading in the same snide voice and every character action indicated beforehand. Jenks is good as the sidekick, and it's great to see "Hogan's Heroes" star John Banner young and good-looking as one of the Nazis.

These films were important to the war effort, and this one demonstrates that even criminals were willing to put their own needs aside to fight their country. One of the Hollywood Ten, director Edward Dmytryk was responsible for "The Caine Mutiny," "Broken Lance," and "Crossfire," but also only mediocre such as "The Left Hand of God" and "Soldier of Fortune" and downright schlock such as "Where Love Has Gone" and "The Carpetbaggers." You never really knew what you were going to get with him. I'd say in this case, he did his best with what he had as far as story and cast. And it moves pretty quickly.

This is a neat little RKO programmer from 1942. We were in full patriotic fervor and it shows. All the ingredients are present. A couple of scoundrels escape from Alcatraz and end up at a remote lighthouse somewhere in San Francisco Bay. Although we know that only the worst of the worst were ever sent there, somehow this movie would like us to think they were arrested for selling ties on the street corner without a permit. There is an appealing cast of characters at the lighthouse, including Bonita Granville, and a weasel played by Erford Gage who is an undercover Nazi spy. The cons inadvertently kill the spy just before he is to pass on some valuable information from a Nazi sub to a cosmopolitan spy ring in SF. There is the inevitable confrontation between the Nazi spies and the cons - and guess who wins. According to the protocol of the times, even vicious gangsters were preferable to these Nazi vermin.

A note about the cast. James Craig must be the worst actor ever to work in Hollywood. He looks good, but he telegraphs every move he makes and acts like a Ray Harryhausen mockup. Frank Jenks made a great living playing wisecracking sidekicks - and for good reason. Bonita Granville looks as good as ever, but she underplays her role for a change to good advantage. John Banner (from Hogan's Heros) plays the Nazi big cheese. If it weren't for his voice, I would never have recognized him. Slender, sophisticated, and rather handsome. Nobody else is really notable except, perhaps, Erford Gage who plays the undercover Nazi spy. What an odd looking guy.

At 65 minutes this won't take up much of your time, but I think it's worth it. But then I was a fan of Brass Bancroft and Dick Tracy. Besides, I like lighthouses.

Champ Larkin (James Craig) and the spartanly named Jimbo (Frank Jenks) are serving their sentences in Alcatraz. The narration by Larkin says that things are not so bad until the war breaks out and all material needed for the inmates to do their jobs - metal and fuel for example - dry up because they are needed on both the homefront and for wartime manufacturing. This causes unbearable boredom on Larkin's part and he and his cellmate break out of Alcatraz.

There have been entire movies made just about trying to break out of Alcatraz, but this programmer makes it look like kindergarten since the escape is not the point. Larkin and Jimbo make it to a lighthouse in the bay and hold the occupants prisoner. The fact that the occupants need to be in constant contact with the authorities to help the war effort means nothing to our escapees, since they are mercenary in character. But then a trio of Nazis show up and become the convicts' accidental hostages. The Nazis are eager to make a deal with the convicts in order to make their rendezvous on time. Will these convicts continue in their mercenary ways? Watch and find out.

James Craig was never an A-list star, but he was pretty good in the Bs of the era. You also have Bonita Granville and Cliff Edwards - who is in the biggest role I've seen him this late in his career. So the quality of the actors in this one makes it worthwhile with pretty good suspense throughout. Also consider that ace noir director Edward Dmytryk is in the director's chair here, so he brings his considerable talents to this production.

Two convicts manage to escape from Alcatraz (they won't tell us how: "trade secrets") and make it to a lighthouse island just off the coast, where they hold 3 men and a woman (Granville) hostage. Luckily for them, the soldier they kill turns out to be a Nazi spy, as they discover when his compatriots arrive in a boat -- just what the 2 convicts need to escape, if they're willing to deal with the Nazis and let them escape with maps of the San Francisco municipal/military works.

Exciting action, some moments of genuine humor, and likeable, human characters make this propaganda pill an easy one to swallow.

The Alcatraz workshop has gone silent during the war as all the needed material gets redirected towards the war effort. Champ Larkin is going stir crazy and ropes his cellmate Jimbo into escaping. They end up stranded on a lighthouse island and take a group of civilians hostage. Then there are the Nazis.

This is a wartime propaganda film. This is the standard message where even the lowest of the low can contribute to the war effort. While I get the message, I don't know if it's the most effective. The plot is already convoluted before the Nazis. Apparently, Nazi operatives were all over the place.