Gangster Kingdom Of Fact In Plaza Film

Northern Advocate, 24 January 1940, Page 8

Gangster Kingdom Of Fact In Plaza Film

Amusements

The incredible conditions which existed at the New York city gaol, on what is now called Welfare Island, before they were exposed and corrected in 1934, are vividly and authentically depicted in “Blackwell’s Island.” With that promising dramatic discovery of “Four Daughters” (John Garfield) in the role of the young reporter who fights a notorious racketeering gang and the corrupt political machine which protects the gang, this film opened at the Plaza Theatre last evening and will be screened again tonight. The leader of the gang is sent to the island, where he murders the policeman who has been responsible for his arrest, and sets up a kingdom under an iron rule.

These gaol sequences are shocking, fantastic and amusing, but they are backed by actual fact. For the threefold purpose of bringing the gang leader to justice, exposing the shocking conditions existing at the gaol, and securing an exclusive story, the reporter has himself sentenced to the island, where he meets plenty of trouble and narrowly escapes death before he achieves his objective.