Experiment Alcatraz (1950) User Reviews

A real head-scratcher from one of the true Kings of the Bs!!

[Dewey1960 · 7/10 · 18 January 2010]

EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ (1950) is another in a very long line of ultra-cheap curios from the prodigiously prolific Edward L. Cahn, one of the undisputed "Kings of the Bs." Produced independently and picked up for theatrical distribution by RKO before eventually evaporating into the ethers of obscurity, this murky little gem ranks as one of Cahn's more interesting films.

Dr. Ross Williams (John Howard) and his crack team of army physicians are certain that by blasting "radioactive isotopes" into human guinea pigs, medical science will find a cure for a rare blood disease. A group of five Alcatraz lifers are given the opportunity to gain their freedom if they're willing to subject themselves to this hazardous and radical medical experiment. The hardened cons, led by the grizzled Barry Morgan (Robert Shayne, perennial good guy Inspector Henderson on TV's Superman) are quick to play ball without any illusions of altruism; their only interest is getting out of the can and this is clearly the only shot they're ever likely to get. But something goes horribly, weirdly wrong and Morgan winds up murdering one of the other cons in the aftermath of the experiment, throwing Dr. Williams' theory and, for that matter, entire medical career into jeopardy. The resulting mystery surrounding the peculiar events taking place at Alcatraz forms the basis for the remainder of this quirky drama.

While perhaps not as sharply drawn as other notable low budget noirs from the late 40s and early 50s, EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ nevertheless earns its stripes through the sheer weirdness of its far-fetched story and the unexpected detours it takes along the way. At fifty-seven minutes, it can hardly be faulted for overstaying its welcome.

Edward L. Cahn had an incredible career in Hollywood, directing countless low budget features over a thirty-year period, including such classics as MAIN STREET AFTER DARK (1945), THE GAS HOUSE KIDS IN Hollywood (1947), DESTINATION MURDER (1950), CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955), GIRLS IN PRISON (1956), SHAKE RATTLE & ROCK (1956), VOODOO WOMAN (1957), MOTORCYCLE GANG (1957), INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957), IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958), RIOT IN JUVENILE PRISON (1959), GUNS, GIRLS & GANGSTERS (1959) and CAGE OF EVIL (1960).

Good to watch at least once. Had some editing oopsies

[bddacd · 5/10 · 17 December 2014]

Flipped to TCM by accident & the opening intrigued me so I recorded it to watch later in evening. Starts w/idea in 50's nobody would believe i.e. that U.S. military would offer 6 extreme-risk felons full parole if they'd be part of an experiment that would most likely kill them. (Today of course, most would accept the idea of a US agency not only risking peoples' lives to achieve some goal & letting five extremely dangerous prisoners go free to cover up some terrible error in the program.

As an RN with 30+ yrs. experience I absolutely believed the Where the nurse had to take the fall for the experiment's deadly outcome. (That still happens all the time in even modern times.) I also chuckled when that poor little nurse & hero doctor go to beg the administrator & when they arrive the nurse cheerfully goes off to make coffee while the two doctors confer about how to gave the program.

There were some interesting editing oopsies i.e. fights & stunts were filmed from bad angles so one could see how obviously punches were pulled & actors sort of 'fell on command'. The end of the movie's a full page of a magazine or paper proclaiming the main character a hero. If you stop the movie on the frame showing this page you find the same paragraphs repeat throughout the article.

Whoever wrote that page didn't read the script, because the first paragraph reads "…following the dramatic turn of events culminating in the murder of a scientist and inventor of a sensational new therapy."

The next paragraph readers "Convicts of the state prison had volunteered to take the tests which might mean death to them." That portion of the article alternates repeatedly (starting on top of the next column) with "...was so intent on the success of his experiments that he volunteered to take the tests himself. Death will no doubt delay the progress of the experiments."

Of course, in 1950 other than the editors no one had the ability to stop & view a single Frame at a time nor watch a scene in slow- motion to critique it, but that doesn't let them off the hook for failure to catch errors.

Despite these minor glitches, this still remains a watchable movie Which starts with an implausible idea & manages to convert it into some rather good plot twists and (in 1950 at least), a surprising ending where the hero's killed (I found myself expecting the hero- doctor had expected to find the bad guy/convict there & prevented being killed) a (fairly) minor character comes to the (experiment's) rescue & risks his own life to save the day.

Odd mystery film set in San Francisco

[mosoul · 7/10 · 28 December 2000]

An intriguing crime story with radiation as the plot's pivotal element. A group of Alcatraz convicts volunteer to be guinea pigs in an experiment seeking to find a cure for a blood disease (apparently related to leukemia). The convicts led by Robert Shayne (the old Superman TV show's Inspector Henderson) are only interested in gaining their freedom. The unexpected effect the radiation has on one prisoner subject leads a doctor and a nurse into a dangerous investigation which is their only hope to salvage their now damaged careers. The current negative attitude towards radiation adds an ironic counterpoint to the protagonists' noble desire to cure said blood disease, which incidentally has infected the nurse's brother. Good atmosphere and a taut narrative make this B picture worth watching.

Far better than I expected.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 April 2017]

This is a very low budgeted film. However despite this, it manages to be both entertaining and worth your time.

The story begins with a medical trial being run at Alcatraz prison. The men have been told that for participating they will be released after the study is concluded. Oddly, one of the patients (Robert Shayne) murders another one of the patients and the radioactive isotope they're using is blamed. And, the program is canceled and the men released...even the killer (which is odd).

Dr. Williams (John Howard) is frustrated that his program was canceled and he vows to prove that his formula was NOT responsible for the murder. So, he sets out to find a motive for the killing...and quickly get the crap beaten out of him and more! So why did the prisoner kill his friend?

The finale for this one is excellent but even without that the story is quite nice and the acting very good despite the folks mostly being small-time from B-movies.

This is a dangerous thing you've turned loose!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 24 January 2010]

**SPOILERS** Complicated crime drama involving an experimental drug, or radioactive isotope, that if successful will end up curing a number of fatal blood diseases including the most lethal of them all leukemia.

On its final test run the drug is given to a number of convicts at Alcatraz prison who by volunteering to be injected with it will win their freedom. As things turned out convict Barry Morgan, Robert Shayne, who seemed to be normal after being injected with the drug went totally nuts and grabbed a pair of scissors left unknowingly at his bedside by nurse Joan MacKenna, Joan Dixon, and stabbed to death his bedmate and friend, who's almost joined to the hip with him, Eddie Ganz, Sam Scar. With a court of inquiry coming up with the reason for Morgan's momentarily bout of insanity being the result of the drug tested on him it's decided by the head of the project Col. Harris, Kenneth MacDonald, to destroy the isotope and cancel the entire project. This brings the person who founded the project Dr. Ross Williams, John Howard, to rush over to Alcatraz and see what exactly caused Morgon to go off the deep end and murder his best friend Eddie Ganz who was like a brother to him.

Working together with the fired for leaving her scissors unguarded, Nurse MacKenna Dr. Williams uncovers a well thought out plan concocted by Morgan back in Leavenworth to murder his "best friend" Eddie Ganz that's even more complex then the experiment he had conducted on him!

***SPOILERS*** This had to do with Ganz stashing away $250,000.00 in his at the time summer house at Lake Tahoe before he was arrested and sentenced to prison. Now with Ganz free Morgan and a person unknown, who told Morgan's about Ganz's plan, had him murdered to keep him from getting to the stolen money before they did! Realizing that the experimental drug had nothing to do with Morgan becoming homicidal Dr. Williams puts his life on the line by becoming a punching bag, for Morgan's thugs, throughout the remainder of the film until he finally proves his point by going so far in getting himself murdered in proving it! Morgan who got away with murder once in, with a crazed look in his eyes, stabbing to death his "best friend" Eddie Ganz tried to pull off the same thing later in the film by trying to murder Dr. Finley, Walter Kingsford, under the same circumstance when, at Dr. Williams insistence, he was re-tested with the drug.

This time around Morgan was caught red-handed, with his hands around Dr. Finley's throat, in a police sting or trap set up for him! The so-called drug that he was injected with that supposedly made him crazy was nothing more then good old bottled water! In the end Dr. Williams experimental drug became available to tens of thousands of people suffering from illness like leukemia including Nurse MacKenny bed ridden brother Dick, Harry Lauther, who without the drug would have never have lived to see his 25th birthday.

Interesting Idea

[Michael_Elliott · 2 February 2010]

Experiment Alcatraz (1950)

** (out of 4)

John Howard plays one of a group of scientists who gather some criminals off of Alcatraz and offer them their freedom if they'll take part in an atomic experiment. Before this is carried off one of the men murders another but a nurse ends up taking the fall for it. Howard and the nurse end up teaming up to try and find out what really happened and why. I can't say this "B" film is a good one but it's certainly weird enough to warrant at least one viewing. I'm really not sure what the point of this film was and I can't say that I fully understood the story but director Cahn at least keeps the thing moving and it clocks in at a short 57-minutes. The actual story is far-fetched but I thought it was rather funny at how serious everyone was taking it. Howard is pretty good in his role as is Robert Shayne in his supporting part. The one scene that will always stick out in my mind is the most laughable fight I've seen in perhaps any movie. The convicts are working when a couple slow motion punches are thrown, which eventually leads to one man getting shot. Now, I'm really not sure if the filmmakers used an outtake or what but I'm trying to figure out why the sequence was shown in a slow motion. The actual camera speed wasn't slowed but the actor are just playing it out in slow motion. After the film I actually went back to watch this sequence a couple times and this thing alone almost makes me recommend the film.

Elimination of message boards was a bad idea.

[snyder61-701-257928 · 5/10 · 29 November 2018]

I agree with mlink, being back the message boards!

post WW II radiation flick

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 19 April 2017]

Interesting little quickie from RKO pictures, especially now that Alcatraz has been shut down. A group of convicts from Alcatraz volunteer to be part of a medical experiment that might help find a cure for some disease, involving radiation treatment. Eddie, one of the convicts, (Sam Scar) stabs another during the treatment, leaving the doctors looking for the cause. Made during the post-WW II radiation scare, this one deals with possible medical cures from that same radiation. The search leads to Tahoe, where someone had a hideout. The only actor I recognized was Frank Cady, (Mr. Drucker, from Green Acres!) Directed by Ed Cahn, master of schlock. Written by George George, the son of Rube Goldberg! It's not bad. Worth the watching, if you can catch it.

The isotope made him do it

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 26 October 2019]

This rather tacky independent B film has a few familiar faces from movies and television.. They are its main asset.

Five volunteer prisoners from Alcatraz consent to be experimented on with an atomic isotope which right about then were just being thought of as a medicinal aide.

One of the prisoners, Robert Shayne is a slick article up and murders another one and the isotope is blamed for driving him mad. Atomic scientist John Howard and nurse Joan Dixon don't believe it either and do their own criminal investigation.

Let's just say that this was a job for Philip Marlowe.

Cheap production values don't help this. Of the actors Shayne registers best.

A Spin on Early Radiation Paranoia Love That Bomb or at Least the Isotopes

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 28 December 2014]

Odd Little B-Movie (clocks in at less than an hour) from Low-Budget Wunderkind Edward Cahn. There are Enough Bizarre Scenes and the Combination of Post Nuclear Radiation Experiments on Convicts & Gangsters is a Guilty Treat.

Not Enough Time or Money to Make the Thing Much More than it is, and that is an Entertaining, Good Looking Programmer that was Actually Quite Early on the Wave of Paranoia About the Bomb's After Effects.

It Tries to Spin the Concern Into a Helper of Mankind and that Radiation and the Nuclear Age Could Be a Good Thing. In Reality the Jury was Out and Truth be Told They didn't have a Clue.

The Scene that is at the Nucleus, a Murder, Post Radiation Treatment, Makes Robert Shayne Look Like a Bug-Eyed Maniacal Monster and is an Artistic Touch that is Quite Scary. There are Some (Mad) Lab Sets with Goggled Patients, and Some Gangster Activity with a Twist or Two.

Overall, Definitely Worth a Watch for its Quirky Plot and the Director's Command of Low-Budgets with an Eye for Sets and Set-Ups.

I just love the word Isotope

[howdymax · 8/10 · 11 June 2002]

At one hour running time, this couldn't even be considered a "B" movie. I suppose it defines the term programmer. Whatever it is, and however much it cost to produce, I think it's a winner. The legendary director, Eddie Cahn, manages to take an unknown cast and a dime store plot and turn it into a tight little mystery. Cahn, like Bill "One Shot" Beaudine and others were masters at using pocket change to turn out two reelers that are somehow able to capture the viewers attention. The plot, such as it is, involves the Army using radioactive isotopes on convicts from Alcatraz to help find a cure for a mysterious blood disease. (I wonder what the ACLU would have to say about that today). The experiment backfires and the hero begins to smell a rat. With the help of his nurse, his investigation leads to a criminal conspiracy involving the head rat - or the head guinea pig. But enough about that. Ignore the story and the unknown and mostly untalented cast. Enjoy the mystery, the pace, and the trip back to the land of double breasted pinstripe suits, Studebakers, and cliches. I voted 8/10

This little programmer surprised me!...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 17 November 2019]

... and in a good way! The direction is rather wooden, but the acting surprised me with pretty good and authentic performances from an almost anonymous cast.

The story has to do with some prisoners from Alcatraz volunteering for a medical experiment that involves receiving large doses of radiation. If the volunteers survive, then they are promised their freedom. Question unanswered - yeah, but what good does it do to radiate these guys since they don't have the blood disease for which this treatment is a cure? Well, don't expect every loophole to be closed in these old programmers.

Then unexpected tragedy as a pair of scissors slips out of the apron of one of the military nurses who is making rounds in the ward and on to the bed of convict Barry Morgan who seizes the scissors and stabs convict Eddie Ganz through the heart, killing him. Morgan and Ganz were friends, and Morgan does not remember doing what he did. Well, a deal is a deal and Morgan is set free along with the other convicts. But since the radiation is the culprit in the killing the experiment is terminated immediately. Also, the careers of the doctor whose idea this was (John Howard as Dr. Ross Williams) and the nurse who dropped the scissors (Joan Dixon as Lt. Joan McKenna) are over. McKenna has a brother with the fatal blood disease and was hoping the experiment would be a first step toward a cure.

So Dr. Williams and Lt. Joan McKenna decide to do some investigating into Ganz' and Morgan's friendship and see if they can find out if this was truly the fault of the experiment, or was it something else? This leads them into mob filled night spots, Italian restaurants where the waiter is insulted if you don't finish the calimari, an old dark house, and to a convict who is just nutty about post cards.

This film picks up a trick from other B noirs/crime dramas/mysteries of the time. If your plot is thin and has some holes, just keep moving from scene to scene and fill your film with interesting off-beat characters. Even if you do have the doctor doing silly things like continually ducking into a phone booth to ask "Have they scheduled the destruction of the isotope yet??" like he is checking on the execution of a death row inmate.

This one is an original and not a bad way to spend an hour. I'd recommend it.

Amazing, convoluted, silly mess - possible spoiler

[lew-11 · 28 December 2000]

With a leading duo of John Howard, fresh from "Radar Secret Service", and Joan Dixon, about to appear in "Bunco Squad", "Hot Lead" and "Pistol Harvest", how can this picture be anything but the comic, laughing piece of wasted celluloid that it is.

John Howard, as Dr Ross Williams, exposes convicts to the healing rays of radioactive minerals, expecting to 'cure' them of some disease that I missed learning about. One of the exposed convicts kills another and the efficacy of the treatment is questioned.

More silly non-sequitors occur and the entire thing devolves - hard as it may be to believe.

Here comes the spoiler - 10 minutes from the end - the hero is killed. Good, but still the movie goes on.

Original Experiment

[mlink-36-9815 · 9/10 · 17 April 2017]

They made a movie that was about the original experiment. But they could not expose the original experiment. Its too ghastly. Our Govt decided to experiment on prisoners HOW? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> By making the men sit on toilet bowls filled with radioactive water. Then their testicles were lowered into the water. The true story is horrible. of course all the men got testicular cancer, natch! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< I wish we had the old board were you could discuss movies. What a terrible decision to remove it. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nurse Joan remembered the post cards, giving this flick . . .

[oscaralbert · 9/10 · 14 June 2021]

. . . five bonus rating points for knotting up loose ends. Inmate Max Henry is the most sympathetic character of EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ, giving Dr. Ross Williams his prized Post Card of Doom. More fatal than any gloomy Tarot rectangle, said picture of Ethel's Death Cabin for Cutie was extracted from Maximum Hank via Ross' sacred pledge to keep the pictorial mail coming for this lonely, hankering con. After the mob behind the tip of Lost Eddie's iceberg lettuce ($250,000, or about $10 million, adjusted for inflation) rubs out the concussion-prone doc, Nurse Joan consoles herself that continuing to be able to kiss her brother beats any possible matrimonial tie, physician or not. But a more heartless wench would never fulfill the late Dr. William's hallowed vow to Post Card Max. I guess it takes all kinds.

Wonderful topic for a medium result.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 27 April 2023]

I was so excited with this unusual and daring scheme, so unpredictable at first sight, but finally spoiled, smashed by a lousy ending. I was very hopeful to watch one more time an Edward L Cahn's gem, afer DESTINATION MURDER, and before GUNS, GIRLS AND GANGSTERS; speak only of crime flicks, movies not supposed to look, like any other ones. Read closely this story and the expectations are at the highest scale. I don't regret to have seen it anyway, but the ending, I repeat, is unfortunately a bit cheesy, run of the mill. That will not prevent this feature to belong to Edward L Cahn's most interesting films anyway.