''King of Alcatraz'' is a 1938 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Robert Florey
Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked a ...
and starring
Gail Patrick
Gail Patrick (born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick, June 20, 1911 – July 6, 1980) was an American film actress and television producer. Often cast as the bad girl or the other woman, she appeared in more than 60 feature films between 1932 an ...
,
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the role of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B movies.
Bi ...
and
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
.
It was the film debut of
Robert Preston.
Plot
Just as gangster Steve Murkil is escaping from
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...
prison, rival
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
radio operators Ray Grayson and Bob MacArthur find themselves assigned to a freighter run by Captain Glennan, headed out to sea.
Among those on board are a new nurse, Dale Borden, and passengers including a young woman and her mother. The younger one is Murkil's moll and the mother is Murkil himself in disguise, making a getaway, with several of his cronies also aboard ship.
Ray and Bob both develop a romantic interest in Dale and both end up in confrontations with Murkil. A fight results in Ray being wounded, with Dale receiving radio instructions on how to perform an operation that he immediately needs. Murkil nearly makes his escape until he is shot by Glennan. On shore, Ray and Dale decide to get married, with Bob their best man.
Cast
*
Gail Patrick
Gail Patrick (born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick, June 20, 1911 – July 6, 1980) was an American film actress and television producer. Often cast as the bad girl or the other woman, she appeared in more than 60 feature films between 1932 an ...
as Dale Borden
*
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the role of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B movies.
Bi ...
as Raymond Grayson
*
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
as Captain Glennan
*
J. Carrol Naish
Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American actor. He appeared in over 200 credits during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Naish received two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in the films '' Sahara ...
as Steve Murkil
*
Robert Preston as Robert MacArthur
*
Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...
as Lou Gedney
*
Dennis Morgan as First Mate Rogers (as Richard Stanley)
*
Richard Denning
Richard Denning (March 27, 1914 – October 11, 1998) was an American actor who starred in science fiction films of the 1950s, including '' Unknown Island'' (1948), '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'' ( 1954), '' Target Earth'' (1954), '' Day ...
as Harry Vay
*
Konstantin Shayne
Konstantin Shayne (born Konstantin Veniaminovich Olkenitski; russian: Константин Вениаминович Олькеницкий, November 29, 1888 – November 15, 1974) was a Russian-American actor.
Biography
Shayne was born in Kha ...
as Murok
* Eddie Marr as Dave Carter
*
Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career.
Early years
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Parnell trained as a musician at Morningside ...
as Olaf
*
Paul Fix as 'Nails' Miller
*
Virginia Vale
Virginia Vale (born Dorothy Howe, May 20, 1920 – September 14, 2006) was an American film actress. She starred in a number of B-movie westerns but took a variety of other roles as well, notably in ''Blonde Comet'' (1941), in which she playe ...
as Dixie (as Dorothy Howe)
*
Monte Blue
Gerard Montgomery Blue (January 11, 1887 – February 18, 1963) was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player ...
as Officer
*
John Hart as 1st Radio Operator
Critical reaction
''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' critic
Frank Nugent
Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...
called the film "a trim little melodrama, tightly written and logically contrived."
Kate Cameron of the ''
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' gave the film three of four stars. She praised Florey's direction and Nolan's performance. An ''
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
'' reviewer called the film "a conglomeration of the old gangster films with a not quite conscientious triangle added."
See also
*
Harry Carey filmography
This is a list of films featuring Harry Carey.
1910
* ''Bill Sharkey's Last Game''
* ''Gentleman Joe''
1912
* ''An Unseen Enemy'' as The Thief
* ''Two Daughters of Eve'' as In Audience
* ''Friends'' as Bob Kyne - the Prospector
* '' So Near ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Of Alcatraz
1938 films
1938 drama films
American drama films
1930s English-language films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Robert Florey
Paramount Pictures films
Alcatraz Island in fiction
Films set on islands
Films set in San Francisco
Films about ship hijackings
1930s American films