Blackwell's Island (1939) User Reviews

Routine But With An Unusual Villain

[Handlinghandel · 6/10 · 5 March 2005]

This is like a lot of crime movies from Warner Brothers and RKO. In some ways, it seems a vehicle for John Garfield. And Garfield is extremely appealing as an honorable reporter.

The fascinating part is Stanley Fields, though. He plays the vicious mob boss who is an overgrown kid. He plays practical jokes. He is barely literate but love the funny papers. His two dogs are as nasty as he is and they accompany him to jail. In jail, he sets himself and his cronies up in the infirmary, throwing out all the legitimately sick people. There he plays with a model train set.

The plot is plausible. Garfield is Good. The Lane sister who gets high billing has only a few lines so who can judge. But Fields's character is the shocker here.

I'm surprised this movie has such a low rating

[richard-1787 · 7/10 · 14 December 2016]

It will not be on anyone's Top Ten list, nor should it be. It's not a great movie.

But it's certainly a good one, and downright exciting at the end.

It also falls into one of the categories of movies that Hollywood really doesn't make anymore, at least in the same way.

Are some of our prisons as corrupt as this one? It wouldn't surprise me, though the corruption is probably not as visible as in this movie.

What makes this movie work for me is John Garfield's energy and determination. Once he gets himself arrested and sent to prison, things really start to take off.

No, the end is not surprising. You know that his character is unlikely to be killed. He is likely to break the story he went after and break the criminal's hold over the prison. But the way he did it held me.

You could do worse than to watch this movie.

Moderately entertaining film, mostly for John Garfield fans

[mbhur · 6/10 · 8 July 2020]

I'm a big John Garfield fan, but had only vaguely heard of this movie and never seen it until a recent TCM showing. The young Garfield is a bit different here than in the later classic films that established his persona. Less dramatically intense, more happy-go-lucky. At times I felt he was channeling a fast-talking, wisecracking Jimmy Cagney, who probably would've starred in this if it were made a few years earlier.

The plot, with reporter Garfield getting himself sent to prison to bring a mob boss to justice, is highly improbable, but it's a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously so can get way with a lot. The way the mob boss (Stanley Fields) virtually runs the prison is played for laughs. It seems far-fetched, but is apparently based on a true story. The blustery Fields is not my cup of tea, and even though he's a murderer and tyrant I think we're supposed to see him as a colorful, even somewhat likeable rogue. I'm not buying. (Wallace Beery might have brought that off. Fields doesn't.) Top billed Rosemary Lane has very little to do, and her underdeveloped romance with Garfield adds nothing to the story. (Rosemary never had the personality or appeal of her more successful sister Priscilla, who made "Dust Be My Destiny" with Garfield soon after this movie).

All in all, it's a slight but entertaining film, and fans of Garfield will definitely want to see him playing a more freewheeling character, even going for comedy at times.

As a native New Yorker, I'd like to note that there really was a Blackwell's Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It was later renamed Roosevelt Island. When I was growing up there was no prison, but it did have what used to be called (in non-PC times) an insane asylum. That was closed, and in the late '70s the island became home to a massive apartment building complex, with residents accessing the upper east side of Manhattan via an aerial tram. (Even after the apartments were built the ruined shell of the asylum still stood, but I believe that was completely torn down several years back.) Interesting that, unlike Alcatraz, on an island way out in San Francisco Bay, New York's island prison was only a stone's throw from Manhattan, so when Garfield swims there after escaping it's totally realistic.

Based on a true story

[bjinfo · 21 May 2005]

As incredible as it may seem, much of the details of the main criminal is this film is stolen "straight from the headlines" about Joseph/Joeyrel Rao, a racketeer who was convicted on conspiracy charges related to a seltzer racket in the Bronx.

Once jailed, he literally took it over, with the help of crooked Tammany Hall politicians, and ran more rackets then they could list or even discuss in the film (e.g. drug dealing, prostitution, etc.).

This Rao was related to the same Rao family as the famous restaurant and yummy tomato sauces you can get in your grocery store.

You can research him by going to the NYTimes.com. It is hard to find general data about him on the web.

Early Garfield In Routine Potboiler

[boscofl · 7/10 · 3 August 2016]

Based on a true story, the Warner Brothers film Blackwell's Island is a routine B programmer boasting the studio's usual staccato pacing and familiar troupe of contract players. The lone exception is newcomer John Garfield in the role of Tim Hayden, a crusading journalist out to get rackets boss "Bull" Bransom. Much happens in the brisk 71 minute film but a consistent tone is never established. Many scenes are played for laughs but there are several murders of good people (including a direct steal from The Public Enemy) that add drama to the piece.

The main character is Bransom, a dim-witted gangster who controls many rackets in New York. He is enacted by Stanley Fields, kind of a bargain basement Wallace Beery (Fields played an identical role in the classic Little Caesar). He is fond of practical jokes (particularly exploding cigars) and not shy about rubbing out those who get in his way. Fields portrays this thug with relish and bounces between comedy and drama in expert fashion. His relegation to fifth billing is interesting given the amount of screen time he enjoys.

Garfield is brash and cocky and a lot of fun to watch. He insults Bransom at every opportunity but never seems to be in any real danger. Given the former's predilection to violence this seems remarkable. The usually villainous Victor Jory is on board as a crusading DA. I had a hard time accepting him as a good guy and was waiting for him to double-cross Garfield at some point. Granville Bates as the spineless Warden has a funny scene when he learns he must bow to Bransom's wishes when the latter is remanded to the prison. His comments and underlying sense of resignation at having to tolerate the thug's outrageous demands are hilarious.

All in all Blackwell's Island is a diverting piece of entertainment that will make 71 minutes zing by. And watching John Garfield in one of his first roles before he exploded into the national consciousness is a treat.

Were are we going? We'll go to the Bronx Zoo and see them new gorillas.

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 5 March 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Hard hitting writing and take no BS investigative reporter Tim Haydon, John Garfield, who's been a torn in the butt of New York City Mob Boss Bull Bransom, Stanley Fields, gets himself arrested to end up in the notorious Blackwell's Island on the East River for slugging Manhattan District Attorney Hampel, William B. Davidson. That's after Bransom was sent there for an assault and battery against NYPD cop Terry Walsh, Dick Parcell, after his men tried to murder hospitalized boat captain Pedersen, Wade Boteler, that officer Welsh tried to prevent. Pedersen who refused to pay protection money to the Bransom Mob was later murdered, together with Oficer Welsh, by them after his testimony sent Bransom for a six month "vacation" to Blackwell's Isand.

Hayden as an inmate at Blackwell's Island is actually working undercover for the NYC D.A's office in order to expose the corruption that's going on there that Bransom is wholly responsible for. Yet at the same time befriends Bransom in order to get on his good side as well as get the goods on him and his paid off stooge Warden Stuart "Stu" Granger, Granville Bates. It's later when Bransom gets wind of what Hayden is really up to he sets him up to be shot trying to escape from the island. A plan that backfires on him and ends up sending Bransom up the river in Sing Sing Prison on murder extortion as well as racketeering charges for the next 99 years!

John Garfield who would have celebrated his 100 birthday yesterday March 4, 2013, he didn't lived long enough to celebrate his 40th, in one of his first tough guy roles that he soon was to became famous for is very convincing as reporter Tim Hayden who goes all out to take down big time mobster Bull Bransom as an act of both justice as well as revenge for his goons murdering his girlfriend Sunny Welsh,Rosemary Lane, brother Officer Terry Welsh and does it John Garfield style. He also has help from the new straight as an arrow and incorruptible Correction Commissioner Thomas MacNair,Victor Jory, who ends up not only putting Boss Bransom away for good but his stooge of a warden "Stu" Granger and his entire paid off,by Mob Boss Bransom, prison crew as well.

great start

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 12 July 2020]

It's 1932 and the government is trying to restart the economy. 'Bull' Bransom is a mob boss running protection racket on the Manhattan waterfront. His men blow up a boat after the captain refused to pay. Reporter Tim Haydon (John Garfield) has been writing articles calling him out. Haydon goes to the hospital to interview the captain and becomes taken with nurse Mary 'Sunny' Walsh.

I really like the start or even the first half. I like the prankster gangster. He's a different kind of gangster and a very effective one. His pranks really keeps me off-balance in a good way. As for John Garfield, he's a great actor with real charisma and presents a great possible foil against Bull. As the story keeps going, there is a miscalibration somewhere along the way. Being off-balance early on with Bull, one eventually finds one's balance and he's not as threatening as one expects. He should track down Haydon down a back alley and beat him to a pulp. With Haydon in the same prison, he should have the guy beaten to an inch of his life. That brings me to Haydon. Garfield is too cool. He's too gangster. He plays it too casual. His character should be in fear for most of the movie. I still really love the first part. When Haydon is brought into Bull's office, the movie started to drift in a wrong direction.

Garfield goes to jail

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 27 August 2020]

Blackwell Island, which was actually also known as Minnehanonck, Varkens, Roosevelt Island, and Welfare Island is where the prison is located in this John Garfield film. Haydon, a newspaper reporter, ends up in the prison to find out what conditions are like, and it turns out another prisoner Bull Bransom ( Stanley Fields, boxer, actor, and cousin to vice president Spiro Agnew!) is really running things. Haydon gets chummy with Bransom (quite easily!) but when Bransom lays out an escape plan, Haydon thinks he's being set up. they make a run for it, and all hell breaks out. It's fast paced, and moves right along! Garfield made a ton of great films with beautiful leading ladies, but the cream of the crop was Postman Always Rings Twice in 1946. it's the best of his roles. Directed by Bill McGann, who had worked his way up in various studio occupations. Very quick but dramatic ending in this one! was the stepping stone for Garfield, who was moving up fast.

The Club Med Of Prisons

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 23 November 2009]

About four years before Warner Brothers made the film Blackwell's Island, the reform LaGuardia administration made a well publicized raid on Blackwell's Island prison and exposed systemic corruption within the correctional facility. It was a high point of Fiorello LaGuardia's first term as mayor of New York. LaGuardia's Corrections Commissioner Austin McCormack is fictionalized here in the character that Victor Jory plays.

What could have been a good film based on modern headlines of the times got turned into a B movie that should have been rated lower. It was certainly a low point in the career of John Garfield who plays your typical crusading newspaperman that Thirties era films loved.

The villain if you could call him that is Stanley Fields and it's from him that Leo Gorcey and the rest of the Bowery Boys learned their impeccable diction and grammar. He's a blithering idiot who loves practical jokes like exploding cigars and squirting carnations. He's such a china shop bull that the politicians upstairs would like him to just cool it for a while. When he doesn't he gets six months in the Blackwell's Island prison until after the election.

Not that prison cramps Fields's style in the least. He turns Blackwell's Island into Club Med for he and a few select cronies, throwing out the patients from the prison hospital and setting up his own posh suite.

Garfield gets involved professionally when he writes some expose articles and it gets personal when Fields and henchmen on their own private work release program kill honest patrolman Dick Purcell who also happens to be the brother of Rosemary Lane who is Garfield's girlfriend. Garfield gets himself thrown into Blackwell's Island where he can get the lowdown.

When Dutch Schultz got out of control, Lucky Luciano had him hit with the connivance of Tammany Hall politicians, simple as that. I watched this film in utter amazement that the powers that be actually kowtowed to Fields.

As for the prison scenes, even the wise guys from Goodfellas didn't live it up half as well as Fields and his pals. Those guys based on some real characters knew the limits they could push things in the joint.

Stanley Fields was a poor man's Wallace Beery and Beery and Fields could be both sinister and oafish, but never in the same movie. What could have been a nice drama based on a true incident was turned into a mess that couldn't make it's mind up whether it was comedy or drama.

The film was a low point in the career of John Garfield during his Warner Brothers contract years. I'm not sure if Garfield did anything worse than Blackwell's Island, but I haven't seen all his films.

Garfield vs. Fields.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 8 July 2022]

It's two Fields for the price of one, and two tough guys as well. John Garfield had scored a hit in "Four Daughters" the year before and got an Oscar nomination, so he was promoted to leading actor with this. He's a tough newspaper reporter focusing on criminal activity, covering the arrest of racketeer Stanley Fields who turns the prison upside down by turning it into his own country club. Garfield arranges to be arrested and put in the same cell block so he can find out information on a murder he believes that Fields was behind, eventually turning his trust although they were enemies on the outside.

Fields, pretending to be sick when the new commissioner of prisons arrived, tells one of his associates, "Just pretend you're in a karma" (meaning coma), just one of many examples of his idiocy. But as humorously dumb as Fields is, the script reminds the viewer that he's dangerous killer and that dumbness is no excuse. Rosemary Lane has a smaller role as the sister of the man Fields had knocked off, even though she's billed about the title. This is one of the better more obscure crime dramas, with a terrific screenplay, a fabulous ensemble and tight direction. This was indeed a B picture that had the top bill in its initial release which indicates that the studio had great faith in it. 80+ years later, it's still powerful, and one of the best gangster films of the 30's.

Machine Gun Garfield

[boblipton · 5/10 · 24 April 2023]

Jovial, practical-joking gangster Stanley Fields gets sentenced to 5-14 at Blackwell's Island and starts running the joint because warden Granville Bates doesn't care. Reporter John Garfield slugs an Assistant District Attorney and gets sent there himself.

It's a bizarre, dead-end in the "let's reform the reformatories" subgenre. While Robinson was moving his gangster persona into comedy efforts like LARCENY INC, and director Raoul Walsh was beginning to revive the shoot-em-up with Cagney as a good guy, Bryan Foy's B division at Warner Brothers was offering stuff like this. Elsewhere, crime dramas were made palatable by using the Damon Runyon formula of making the leads seem like gangs who couldn't speak straight. Here, Fields is childish. He plays with electric trains, he has a squirting boutonniere, he offers exploding cigars, all of which hint at violence while remaining harmless. He may knock down Garfield with his fists, but in the end, it's Garfield who has the Tommy Gun. With Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell, Victory Jory, Peggy Shannon, Charley Foy, and Leon Ames.

Great B Movie Fun

[gnrz · 8/10 · 28 August 1999]

This is one of those movies which are jammed packed with actors who's names we don't recall but who's faces are very familiar because they appear in so many of these great B movies. About the only well known actors are John Garfield and Victor Jory. This film is about a New York protection racket boss, played by Stanley Fields as somewhat menacing yet also a comic figure. He and two of his henchmen get sent to a local prison on a Hudson River island, where they end-up taking control and have the warden and his staff do their bidding. Garfield plays a crusading crime reporter who arranges to become a prisoner on the island so as to get the goods on the mob. It's great fun with lots of action, laughs, and good solid performances by all parties. You won't take this picture very serious but you will have a lot of fun while watching it.

Have Fun in Prison

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 6 August 2011]

On the waterfront in New York City, practical joking extortionist Stanley Fields (as Bull Bransom) is not amused when reporter John Garfield (as Tim Haydon) starts writing a series of articles exposing his racket. After beating up policeman Dick Purcell (as Terry Walsh), Mr. Fields is sentenced to "Blackwell's Island". But Fields soon has the prison operating like his private country club, with criminal activity continuing. Mr. Garfield goes undercover as an inmate to investigate. Playing Mr. Purcell's pretty sister, nurse Rosemary Lane (as Sunny), provides Garfield with a romantic interest.

**** Blackwell's Island (3/2/39) William McGann ~ John Garfield, Stanley Fields, Dick Purcell, Rosemary Lane

I watched a B-movie and daresay I enjoyed it.

[xFuntoosh · 19 March 2013]

This was my first John Garfield film, and it has him in the first of many tough-guy roles, this time as journalist Tim Haydon, who's out to bring down city mob 'Bull' Bransom. I found it a rather enjoyable movie, and it's not too exhaustingly long, lasting only 75 minutes. John Garfield also puts in a stellar performance - his dialogue delivery and everything is spot-on, but the screenplay lets the actors down. Watched today, it seems more like a run-of-the-mill prison/gangster film, and a little dated, but if you haven't seen a lot of Warner Brothers or John Garfield films, this is an okay time-pass film. Now I'm off to watch some more of his other (supposedly better) films!

Lame and so boring.

[alexanderdavies-99382 · 3/10 · 30 August 2017]

This boring film hasn't got anything going for it, except for John Garfield. The story is supposedly taken from real events but I find that to be rather incredulous. "Warner Bros" hardly went out of their way in providing a great actor like John Garfield, an opening film which should have been more tailor- made for him. "Blackwell's Island" is a transparent film with no entertainment value at all. Even the action scenes are poor. The film stays relegated as a programmer but I've seen better ones than this!

Seemingly unrealistic...but highly entertaining thanks to Stanley Fields.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 8 July 2020]

Bull Bransom (Stanley Fields) is an uncultured and obnoxious hood who heads the Waterfront Protection Association....a respectable name for an organization of crooks who shake down the businesses along the docks. Folks there either pay up...or Bransom's men make sure bad things happen to them! While many suspect Bransom is behind all this, local politicians protect him from prosecution. Despite this, a local reporter, Tim Haydon (John Garfield), is convinced that his exposees will lead to Bull's arrest. And, eventually, Bransom's actions do lead to him being sent to prison at Blackwell's Island, New York. But Bull isn't content to do his time and return to his old ways. Instead, he plans on running his old business from behind bars AND live like a king while in jail. Soon, with the help of local crooked officials, Bull does exactly that....arranging murders and living as if he was the warden of Blackwell's Island. The dogged reporter is determined to get the goods on Bransom and soon he punches a special prosecutor just so he can get himself locked up at Blackwell's as well!

The main reason to watch this film is because it's so entertaining...much of it thanks to Fields' bigger than life and exciting role as Bull Bransom. John Garfield is fine in the lead...but he's easily overshadowed by Fields...and rarely is there a more enjoyable mobster in a 1930s film. Realistic? Probably not...but always entertaining.

Decent

[Michael_Elliott · 10 March 2008]

Blackwell's Island (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting if not totally successful Warner film that mixes their gangster pictures with their prison films of the time. A gangster gets sent to prison but he's having an easier time calling the shots there so a reporter (John Garfield) enters to try and see what's going on. There's a strange mixture of laughs and thrills in this picture that comes off pretty strange. The gangster in the picture is played for nothing but laughs and this includes him constantly playing pranks on people. The film's screemplay is pretty weak and doesn't offer too much that we haven't seen in countless other Warner dramas. The one big bonus is the terrific performance by Garfield.

A Treat For John Garfield Fans

[ponekingpetch · 10/10 · 18 June 2018]

If you like the Screen's First Rebel you will love this fun B programmer which was Garfield's initial film for Warner Bros. He had that rapid fire line delivery and script memorization of hard lines down to a T here. Great supporting cast of Warner stock players and Stanley Field's most screen time ever. Loved the prison set decoration and lensing of the movie. The Tough Guy looked like he had fun making this assembly line B picture and you will as well viewing it. Highly Recommend!

Average, Despite Garfield

[dougdoepke · 7 March 2013]

After being convicted, an egotistical crime boss corrupts the prison he's sent to, until a crusading commissioner and crime reporter get on his trail.

If you like the blustery Wallace Beery you might like this movie. After all, the film's real star is a Beery impersonator, Stanley Fields (Bull Bransom), who has the most scenes and screen time. Looks to me like Garfield's only got a featured part though he gets top billing. I guess (IMDB) the top billing is because his smash hit Four Daughters (1938) was made after this film but released before Blackwell. So Warner's shot more scenes for him in this film before releasing it, knowing they had a budding star. Anyway, as a Garfield fan, I've never seen him look so young. Still, he's got his usual fast-talk delivery but without the patented tough guy demeanor. All in all, this may be his first screen appearance.

At the same time, why top bill Rosemary Lane when she's only got about a minute of screen time. No doubt she was also added after initial shooting because she played so well with Garfield in Four Daughters. I've spent some time on these oddities because the movie itself is ordinary, at best. Fields makes a comical crime boss in a routine screenplay that relies mainly on his Beery-like qualities. Warner's does get to use a lot of its stock footage of prison turmoil, a topic it specialized in. Still and all, except for the evolution of Garfield's career, the movie itself is nothing more than a routine bottom-of-the-bill programmer.

Not the best John Garfields' vehicle

[searchanddestroy-1 · 26 April 2024]

It is a Warner Bros feature, fast paced, action packed, starring John Garfield, but that's all. Not my favourite with him. It is too light hearted for my taste. Warner Brothers gave us many of this kind. It is typical of this period, no one can deny, but I got rapidly tired of it. Not a comedy crime, but not so far. William McGann the director was a prolific onee but he obviously lacked ambition, just an effective chain film maker, the perfect yes man. I won't watch it again, and forget it rapidly. John Garfield deserved a bit more than this film, he deserved to have a more powerful character, more poignant, gripping. That's my own opinion.