Watch Experiment Alcatraz For Free

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

**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.

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).

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