Alcatraz Island (film)

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.

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.

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."