Blackwell's Island (DVD), Warner Archives, Action & Adventure

Crusading reporter Tim Haydon goes behind bars at the infamous prison on New Yorks Blackwell s Island, determined to expose a vicious network of corruption and crime. There, he's under the power of a gangland kingpin who runs the prison like his private fiefdom while the weak-willed warden looks the other way. Then the kingpin gets suspicious of the new inmate, and Tim is marked for murder. One year after his breakthrough performance in Four Daughters, john Garfield headlined this hard-hitting crime drama representative of the spare, socially realistic melodramas Warner Bros. Turned out in the 19305. The supporting cast includes Rosemary Lane (one of Garfields Four Daughters costars), Dick Purcell, Victor jory and Leon Ames. Today Blackwell s Island - a sliver of land in the East River - has escaped it's notorious past to become a thriving residential community rechristened Roosevelt Island.