Alcatraz Island (film)

Last updated
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by William C. McGann
Screenplay by Crane Wilbur
Produced by Bryan Foy
Starring John Litel
Ann Sheridan
Mary Maguire
Gordon Oliver
Dick Purcell
Ben Welden
Cinematography L. William O'Connell
Edited by Frank DeWar
Music by Heinz Roemheld
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • November 6, 1937 (1937-11-06)
Running time
63 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Alcatraz Island is a 1937 American drama film directed by William C. McGann and written by Crane Wilbur. The film stars John Litel, Ann Sheridan, Mary Maguire, Gordon Oliver, Dick Purcell and Ben Welden. The film was released by Warner Bros. on November 6, 1937. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

John Litel is on trial for cheating the government. He makes a deal with the prosecutor who will recommend a six month sentence in jail in exchange for a guilty plea. The judge tosses out the plea agreement and gives John five years in prison. His girlfriend Ann Sheridan promises to wait for him and to look after John’s daughter. Gangster Ben Welden snatches the girl for ransom. He’s caught and sentenced to the same prison as John. They quickly fight and Brady is blamed. Later on they are both transferred to another prison where Welden is stabbed and killed with John’s work knife. John is put on trial for the murder. Defending him is the man in love with his daughter, the guy from the New York DA’s office. A friend of John’s from prison talks another con into taking credit for the crime and John is acquitted. Just as the guilty verdict is about to be read we discover that John’s convict friend is actually a FBI agent who has a recoding of the killer’s confession made just before he hanged himself. An ending worthy of Perry Mason.

Cast

Reception

Frank Nugent of The New York Times said, "This rough-and-ready outline may not convey it, but the film has a compact plot, smooth performances by John Litel and the little-known others, and a good bit of interesting material on the present residence of Al Capone. Whether the Alcatraz scenes are accurate or not is beside the point; they do make good watching. And so, for all its Class B-ishness, does the picture." [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Life of Emile Zola</i> 1937 film by William Dieterle

The Life of Emile Zola is a 1937 American biographical film about the 19th-century French author Émile Zola starring Paul Muni and directed by William Dieterle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Sheridan</span> American actress and singer (1915–1967)

Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.

<i>The Angels Wash Their Faces</i> 1939 film by Ray Enright

The Angels Wash Their Faces is a 1939 Warner Bros. film directed by Ray Enright and starring Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan and the Dead End Kids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Maguire</span> Australian-born actress (born 1919)

Mary Maguire was an Australian-born actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s.

<i>Black Legion</i> (film) 1937 film by Archie Mayo

Black Legion is a 1937 American crime drama film, directed by Archie Mayo, with a script by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines based on an original story by producer Robert Lord. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore and Ann Sheridan. It is a fictionalized treatment of the historic Black Legion of the 1930s in Michigan, a white vigilante group. A third of its members lived in Detroit, which had also been a center of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

San Quentin is a 1937 Warner Bros. drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. It was shot on location at San Quentin State Prison.

<i>Castle on the Hudson</i> 1940 film by Anatole Litvak

Castle on the Hudson is a 1940 American prison film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring John Garfield, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. The film was based on the book Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, written by Lewis E. Lawes, on whom the warden in the film was based. Castle on the Hudson is a remake of the 1932 Spencer Tracy prison film 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, also based on Lawes's book.

<i>She Loved a Fireman</i> 1937 film by John Farrow

She Loved a Fireman is a 1937 American action drama film directed by John Farrow and starring Dick Foran and Ann Sheridan.

<i>Back in Circulation</i> 1937 film by Ray Enright

Back in Circulation is a 1937 American comedy drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell. Based on the short story "Angle Shooter" by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Blondell plays a fast-moving newspaper reporter who senses a story when she spots a young recent widow partying in a night club.

<i>Mystery House</i> (film) 1938 film by Noel M. Smith

Mystery House is a 1938 American mystery crime film directed by Noel M. Smith and starring Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan as nurse Sarah Keate, and is based on the 1930 novel The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart. Sheridan also played the same character in The Patient in Room 18, released in January 1938, while Aline MacMahon played her in While the Patient Slept in 1935.

<i>Broadway Musketeers</i> 1938 film by John Farrow

Broadway Musketeers is a 1938 American musical drama film directed by John Farrow for Warner Bros. Starring Margaret Lindsay, Ann Sheridan and Marie Wilson as three women who grew up in an orphanage and cross paths later in life, it is a remake of the Warners pre-code crime drama film, Three on a Match.

<i>Men in Exile</i> 1937 film by John Farrow

Men in Exile is a 1937 American drama film directed by John Farrow. A "B" movie from Warner Bros, it was the first feature Farrow directed. It is essentially a remake of their 1931 melodrama Safe in Hell, albeit with the lead switched from female to male, with some plot changes as a result.

<i>Blackwells Island</i> (film) 1939 film by William C. McGann

Blackwell's Island is a 1939 American crime drama film directed by William C. McGann and written by Crane Wilbur. The film stars John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell, Victor Jory, Stanley Fields and Morgan Conway. The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 25, 1939.

The Captain's Kid is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Nick Grinde and written by Tom Reed. The film stars May Robson, Sybil Jason, Guy Kibbee, Jane Bryan, Fred Lawrence and Dick Purcell. The film was released by Warner Bros. on November 14, 1936.

<i>Wine, Women and Horses</i> 1937 film by Louis King

Wine, Women and Horses is a 1937 American drama film directed by Louis King and written by Roy Chanslor. The film stars Barton MacLane, Ann Sheridan, Dick Purcell, Peggy Bates, Walter Cassel and Lottie Williams. It is based on the 1933 novel Dark Hazard by W. R. Burnett. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 11, 1937. The screenplay concerns a gambler who tries to reform.

<i>Missing Witnesses</i> 1937 film by William Clemens

Missing Witnesses is a 1937 American crime film directed by William Clemens and written by Kenneth Gamet and Don Ryan. The film stars John Litel, Dick Purcell, Jean Dale, Sheila Bromley, Ben Welden and William Haade. The film was released by Warner Bros. on December 11, 1937.

<i>Daredevil Drivers</i> 1938 film by B. Reeves Eason

Daredevil Drivers is a 1938 American crime film directed by B. Reeves Eason and written by Sherman L. Lowe. The film stars Beverly Roberts, Dick Purcell, Gloria Blondell, Gordon Oliver, Charley Foy and Donald Briggs. The film was released by Warner Bros. on February 12, 1938.

<i>Over the Wall</i> (film) 1938 film by Frank McDonald

Over the Wall is a 1938 American drama film directed by Frank McDonald and written by Crane Wilbur and George Bricker, based on a story by Lewis E. Lawes. The film stars Dick Foran, June Travis, John Litel, Dick Purcell, Veda Ann Borg and George E. Stone. The film was released by Warner Bros. on April 2, 1938.

<i>Nancy Drew... Detective</i> 1938 film

Nancy Drew... Detective is a 1938 American comedy film directed by William Clemens and written by Kenneth Garnet. The film stars Bonita Granville, John Litel, James Stephenson, Frankie Thomas, Frank Orth and Helena Phillips Evans. The film was released by Warner Bros. on November 19, 1938.

<i>Indianapolis Speedway</i> (film) 1939 film by Lloyd Bacon

Indianapolis Speedway is a 1939 American drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Sig Herzig and Wally Kline.The film stars Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, John Payne, Gale Page, Frank McHugh and Grace Stafford. The film was released by Warner Bros. on August 5, 1939.

References

  1. ↑ "Alcatraz Island (1937) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  2. ↑ "Alcatraz Island". Afi.com. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  3. ↑ Nugent, Frank S. (1937-10-14). "Movie Review - Alcatraz Island - THE SCREEN; The Freres Warner Continue Their Penal Researches in 'Alcatraz Island,' Showing at the Strand". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-08-27.


Drama film icon.svg

This 1930s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.