Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

classicsoncall More so than the story itself, I was intrigued by the opening scene which described the rackets as a lottery scheme peddled to folks in poor neighborhoods offering a reasonable 600 to 1 shot at hitting a winner. With bets ranging anywhere from a dime to thirty cents, this operation was netting gangster Frankie Terris (Fred Keating) a million bucks a year! The math doesn't really work for me, but it sounded pretty good.The other thing I didn't get was Frankie handing over the rackets to rival Manny Robbins (Alexander Leftwich) - really? I didn't understand the motivation for that. Sure he was about to be investigated for his involvement in the phony lottery scheme, but what gangster worth his salt hasn't been? It just didn't make any sense. This after Manny had agreed to work with the authorities to bring Frankie down. I think that would have been a more interesting story.Instead, big brother Frankie knocks off Manny's son Joe (James Blakeley) for getting frisky with sister Louise (Dorothy Comingore as Linda Winters). The rest of the film follows Frankie being convicted of murder and riding the prison train of the title cross country to Alcatraz, as Manny seeks revenge following along by car and biding his time until he can kill Frankie himself. The kicker here is that Louise stows away aboard the train intending to warn her brother of the plot. Think about that one for a while.You know, this was kind of curious - because Louise hopped aboard the train without a ticket, she wound up with no money to pay for one when the conductor came around. So undercover federal agent Bill Adams (Peter Potter) states that she can have his for the next leg of the trip. With that, the conductor says he'll arrange for a refund for that portion of Adams' fare. What am I missing here? So with the other convicts taunting Frankie about never making it to Alcatraz, he gets more and more paranoid as Manny and his goons make plans for the rubout at the Kansas City stop. Frankie muscles a gun away from a steward (Clarence Muse), shoots Manny, and then, in as convoluted a finish as I've ever seen, falls off the train to his death! What?!?! I thought that was just a goofy way to end the picture, but apparently Alfred Hitchcock must have liked the idea, because he used the same finish in 1943's "Shadow of a Doubt".

kidboots Clarence Muse was the star of the first all singing, all talking, all dancing film featuring an all black cast. It was "Hearts in Dixie" (1929) but even though Muse fought against demeaning stereo- types and also held a law degree, he was powerless to make a difference in those unenlightened times. After a couple of "race" films, it was back to uncredited parts in films like "Swing High" (1930) and "White Zombie" (1932) or even playing a character by the name of "Whitey" in "Broadway Bill" (1934). Although "train steward" doesn't sound important, Muse makes it so and is a very pivotal part of the action in this interesting programmer. Racketeer Frankie Terris is on train bound for Alcatraz. He is fearful for the safety of his sister, Louise (Linda Winters) after he accidentally kills a rival gangster's son, who had tried to get fresh with Louise and wouldn't take no for an answer. Manny Robbins, the boy's grief crazed father, tries to kill Terris after his trial. Unbeknownst to Frankie, Louise, after promising to go on a European vacation, is also aboard the prison train and gets chummy with Adams, who does his best to protect her. Once on board the train, the film picks up - the dim lighting, which made the film look cheap is appropriate here. Clarence Muse has the role of Sam, whom Louise uses as a "go- between" - but he is not as unassuming as he seems. Interestingly, the titled forward portrays Terris as a rat and a weakling but he doesn't seem any worse in the film than some of the others (Manny Robbins and his son). Doroothy Comingore, known as Linda Winters for this film, did quite well as Louise Terris, sister of Frankie. This was one of her very few credited parts until "Citizen Kane", the reason she is remembered today.

sol Entertaining despite it's low budget production values "Prison Train" is a "Narrow Margin" like suspense movie, made fourteen years earlier, about a man marked for death on his way to the "Big House". Being the number one man in the New York City numbers racket Frankie Terris, Fred Keating, suspects that his rival in crime gang boss Mannie Robbins, Alexander Leftwich, is turning states evidence against him. Making up his mind to get out of the rackets since he's drowning in cash,more money that he can ever spend, from his illegal activities Frankie decides to hand over his share of the business to Robbins and then go with his kid sister Louise, Dorothy Comingore, on a trip to Europe.Robbins son Joe, James Blakely, meets Louise at a get-together at the "Swing Club" where his dad and Frankie are to iron out their latest differences and Joe really gets hooked on Louise. At his suite Frankie spots Joe with his hands all over Louise and tells him to get lost and away from his sister if he knows whats good for him. Later Frankie follows Joe outside and after slugging it out with Joe Frankie smashes his brains in with a lead pipe killing him.It turned out that Frankie killed Joe on government property, the Post Office grounds,and is tried by the Federal Government and sentenced to life and sent to the "Rock", Alcatraz Island, to serve out his time that would be the rest of his natural life. Joe's dad Mannie Robbins want's Frankie to pay with his life and comes up with a plan to have him murdered before he get's there. Having a number of his hoods, including his top Harlem numbers man Sam, Clarense Muse, border the train Robbins plans to kill Frankie himself before the locomotive pulls into the San Francisco station. Also boarding the New York to San Francisco run is Louise who want's to see Frankie off for a last good-by just before he's sent away for good. Even more interesting is US Government Agent Bill Adams, Peter Potter, who's on he train to make sure that nothing happens to Frankie. Adams who's supposed to see to it that Frankie arrives safely to the "Rock" gets so interested in Louise that he completely forgets what he's on he train for in the first place. Which results in the movie's somewhat surprise ending. Robbins could have had Frankie killed almost as soon as he bordered the train with about a dozen of is hoodlums, including Sam disguised as a train steward, on board but waited until the train stooped in Kansas so he alone could board it and do the job himself.Frankie who at first looked as if he was going on vacation without a show of concern at all soon began to turn paranoid with close ups of his face looking like he was a spaced-out zombie as the train came closer and closer to it's final destination. I guess it must have been the cigarettes that he was constantly smoking which must have had something more then tobacco in them. Tightly directed and acted "Prison Train" delivers the goods and only the ending was a bit off and pulled the movie down a few notches. The fight between Frankie and Joe earlier in the movie was so low-keyed and serene, with both men looking like they were sparing with each other and pulling their punches, that for a moment you thought they were doing some kind of dance number until Frankie ended it all by cracking Joe's skull open with a pipe.

goblinhairedguy Considering its lowly production origins (Equity Pictures), this is a surprisingly tight, absorbing action picture with some good comic asides. Director Wiles, who also helmed several other fine B-pics (like The Gangster) keeps the film moving at a rapid pace without sacrificing character nuances and unexpected camera angles. The ending is a little abrupt, but still nifty. As always, Clarence Muse does an excellent turn with the little material provided in his pivotal part, and the comic relief gets off some good lines. Would make a fine double bill with The Narrow Margin or The Tall Target.