NO ONE HAS EVER ESCAPED FROM ALCATRAZ… AND NO ONE EVER WILL!
In 1960, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) arrives at Alcatraz after having escaped from several other prisons… and immediately begins to plan the impossible – leave The Rock. One of Eastwood and director Don Siegel’s best collaborations is also one of their most popular. Based on the intriguing real-life story of the only men who got away from Alcatraz (and may or may not have survived), this is a well-made thriller that takes excellent advantage of the actual Alcatraz locations, inside and outside the prison. The escape has been meticulously recreated and the film has good performances, with a solid Eastwood and Patrick McGoohan as a chilly warden.
1979-U.S. 112 min. Color. Produced and directed by Don Siegel. Screenplay: Richard Tuggle. Book: J. Campbell Bruce. Cast: Clint Eastwood (Frank Morris), Patrick McGoohan (The Warden), Roberts Blossom (Chester ”Doc” Dalton), Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward, Paul Benjamin… Danny Glover.
Trivia: Glover’s film debut.
Last word: “Going out to the prison, which has a special atmosphere of its own, then touring around the island, you take [Frank Morris] on. I became him. We had the run of the place in the evening. There were no tourist, there was not another soul. Not a human being on Broadway, which is the main cellblock. You’d sit there and you’d just feel it, and think, My God, what it must have been like to spend night after night – what must have been twenty-two out of every twenty-four hours – in this little crummy cell.” (Eastwood, “Conversations with Clint”)
