Don't go into this crime drama from Paramount thinking that this is a prison movie taking place at the famous prison off the coast of San Francisco. The only reference to Alcatraz is the escaped criminal played by J. Carroll Naish who disguises himself as an old lady and boards a passenger ship, forced to deal with the tough team of Lloyd Nolan and Robert Preston, playing long time buddies fighting over nurse Gail Patrick who must put their differences aside to fight a different type of enemy. Veteran actor Harry Carey is the captain of the ship who has his hands full with Nolan and Preston but does come to count on them with the situation at hand.
I was hoping that this would be as good as the previous entry in the series of bee crime dramas from Paramount, "King of Gamblers", but it's basically a retread of the type of film that Warner Brothers had been putting out on a daily basis pretty much since the beginning of sound. Those films are easy to find on Turner Classic Movies so these rare films from other studios not given as much play are a treat when they are good.
There is great banter between Nolan and Preston, and it's a buddy film mixed with typical crime melodrama that has some interesting moments but is just all too familiar to be considered a good film. A young Dennis Morgan has a small part as one of the crew members, while a young starlet named Virginia Dabney plays the floozy moll escorting Naish's granny like drag character around. Naish has one particularly good violent moment involving an old gang member who betrayed him, but it is pretty predictable how this will conclude.
I was hoping that this would be as good as the previous entry in the series of bee crime dramas from Paramount, "King of Gamblers", but it's basically a retread of the type of film that Warner Brothers had been putting out on a daily basis pretty much since the beginning of sound. Those films are easy to find on Turner Classic Movies so these rare films from other studios not given as much play are a treat when they are good.
There is great banter between Nolan and Preston, and it's a buddy film mixed with typical crime melodrama that has some interesting moments but is just all too familiar to be considered a good film. A young Dennis Morgan has a small part as one of the crew members, while a young starlet named Virginia Dabney plays the floozy moll escorting Naish's granny like drag character around. Naish has one particularly good violent moment involving an old gang member who betrayed him, but it is pretty predictable how this will conclude.