Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

How sad is this?

Expected more

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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.

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.

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!

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.