November 12, 2014, 1:30 p.m. — Alcatraz Island (1937)
Alcatraz Island
1937. Directed by William McGann. With John Litel, Mary Maguire, Dick Purcell. Lured by the title, audiences hoping to see an old-school Warner Bros. gangster film must have been disappointed by this diminished return to the studio’s favorite genre, as thoroughly bowdlerized by the Production Code Administration. The reliable John Litel stars as the world’s most benign racketeer; Sheridan, in a role too typical of her B career, does what she can with the confining part of his Park Avenue fiancée. Mysteriously, the film was banned in Sweden, Finland, and Trinidad. 63 min.
