BY JOHN M. WHALEN
The Warner Archive has released the crime drama "Seven Miles from Alcatraz" on DVD.
It’s 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. The nation is
nervous about the possibility of another bombing raid by the Japanese, and
nobody is more nervous about that possibility than Champ Larkin (James Craig)
and his pal Jimbo (Frank Jenks), two convicts doing time on Alcatraz. Champ’s a
pretty self-centered guy. He isn’t at all concerned about the war. It’s none of
his business. “If they want to fight, let ‘em fight.†he says. “Theres a law
says they can’t draft convicts. We’ll sit this one out.†(Jimbo’s a little more
thoughtful. “I don’t know, Champ,†he says. “Anybody pulls a sneak trick like
that is a rat and a rat means trouble here and there.â€)
When they see some Zeros coming in over the Pacific to do
a flyover of San Francisco, Champ decides it’s time to evacuate. As he says in
his voice-over narration, “It ain’t easy breaking out of Alcatraz, and we can’t
tell you how we did it because it’s a professional secret. But we had two
things going for us. A blackout and a heavy fog.â€
They try to swim to San Francisco in the dark but don’t
get far before the cops start shooting at them from a patrol boat. Luckily
there is a wooden crate floating in San Francisco Bay that night and they hide
inside it. The crate, by the way, and by sheer chance, has the name H. Schlom
stamped on it, which is some kind of inside joke, since Herman Schlom from
1940-52 was producer of second features for RKO, and was producer of “Seven Miles from Alcatraz.†They
elude the cops but drift out under the Golden Gate Bridge and land at a
lighthouse seven miles from the prison.
Living in the lighthouse are the lighthouse keeper,
Captain Porter (George Cleveland), his daughter Anne (Bonita Granville), a
comic relief guy named Stormy (Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket), and
radio man Paul Brenner (Erford Gage). Champ and Jimbo take over the lighthouse
and hold the inhabitants prisoner. At first Champ, who hasn’t seen a woman in
five years, seems more interested in getting to know Anne better than continuing
with his escape. But, in the meantime, Brenner, the radio man, is receiving
coded message that he pretends he can’t understand. It turns out he’s working
with a small cell of German spies (Tala Birell, John Banner, [otherwise known
as Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes], and Otto Reichow), who are hiding in San
Francisco, and are awaiting Brenner’s arrival by boat to ferry them out to the
lighthouse, which they’re going to use as a landing point for a U-boat coming
in through the Bay. Whew, I need to get my breath after that line.
When there’s another blackout, Champ decides it’s time to
split. He and Jimbo want to take the lighthouse keeper’s boat and take off, but
the lights come back on before they can get away. Things get further complicated
when the Nazis get another boat and arrive at the lighthouse. At first it looks
bad for the good guys, but Champ, being the self-centered cad that he is,
strikes a bargain with the Germans that will allow Jimbo and him to get out of
the country on the sub. Of course things go awry, and when Anne is placed in
danger, good old Champ, who’s quickly grown rather fond of the old girl, shows
his true colors and decides he won’t stay out of the fight after all. He springs
into action against the spy trio and sends the coordinates of the sub’s
location to the coast guard.
Well, it’s all pretty silly, but it’s entertaining in a
quaint sort of way, if you don’t mind the preposterous plot. The only really
noteworthy thing about it is that it was the first feature film Edward Dmytryk
directed for RKO Radio Pictures. You gotta start somewhere, right?
“Seven Miles from Alcatraz†is a low budget World War II
propaganda film released by the Warner Archive Collection in a bare-bones,
no-extras DVD. Picture and sound are okay, but nothing remarkable, which pretty
much sums it all up. If you’re a big fan of James Craig (and who isn’t) or
Bonita Granville (there may be a few still alive), an Edward Dmytryk
completist, or you just like lighthouses, this one’s for you.
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John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)