alexanderdavies-99382 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!

richard-1787 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.

sol1218 ***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.

David (Handlinghandel) 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.