Note: In this movie future producer of the classic TV series Perry Mason, Gail Patrick, plays an earnest and even-keeled nurse. She is cool and calm enough to be guided through long-distance abdominal surgery. She ought, however, to wear the surgical mask over her nose too. We learned such technical niceties in 2020.
King of Alcatraz
1938 / 54 minutes
Tagline: “He Changed his Prison Stripes for a Pirate's Hat!”
[internet archive]
Robert Preston and Lloyd Nolan are two radiomen on a cruise ship. They are frenemies who brawl over boop-a-doop girls named Dixie. One day in San Franciso they are almost run down by a speeding car. It was being chased by cops because a gangster stole it to escape police custody.
The gangster J. Carrol Naish is sly enough to escape from Alcatraz by claiming he needed medical attention. He was also resourceful enough to disguise himself as an old lady to get aboard the same cruise ship to which our two sparks guys were assigned. But he impulsively kills a traitor on board ship though the victim will be soon missed. And the plan to take over the ship, change course, and then escape into the wilds of Central America seems half- baked, at best. The sailors call him “King of Alcatraz” out of contempt.
Too much time is spent establishing the rivalry of Preston and Nolan. But in short order, the movie becomes fast-moving to a fault, never giving the movie-goer’s attention a second to wander. Gail Patrick’s part is under-written and there’s no time to give her any chance to act. The climax was rushed and breathless. J. Carrol Naish does not give himself up to the dark side of the hambone as he was so often to do later in his career, which may disappoint movie-goers who are bracing themselves for when he leaves “restrained” in the rearview mirror.
The movie is still worth an hour because Robert Florey is the director. His images of the tramp steamer make it feel as if it were in the moist grip of subtropical humidity. A movie-goer has to respect Florey’s attention to craft, even in lowly movies like this one. No missteps at all when it comes to camera work.
Dennis Morgan and Anthony Quinn have tiny little parts. This B-movie was Robert Preston's first movie. What a voice that guy had! Ya Got Trouble!
Other
Gail Patrick Movies: Click on the title to go to the review
· If I Had a Million
· The Phantom Broadcast
· The Murders in the Zoo
· Death Takes a Holiday
· The Crime of Helen Stanley
· Murder at the Vanities
· The Preview Murder Mystery
· My Man Godrey
· Murder by Pictures
· Artists and Models
· King of Alcatraz
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