Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

LeonLouisRicci 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.

Marlyn Rosent Flipped to TCM by accident & the opening intrigued me so I recorded it to watch later in evening. Starts w/idea in 50's nobody would believe i.e. that U.S. military would offer 6 extreme-risk felons full parole if they'd be part of an experiment that would most likely kill them. (Today of course, most would accept the idea of a US agency not only risking peoples' lives to achieve some goal & letting five extremely dangerous prisoners go free to cover up some terrible error in the program.As an RN with 30+ yrs. experience I absolutely believed the Where the nurse had to take the fall for the experiment's deadly outcome. (That still happens all the time in even modern times.) I also chuckled when that poor little nurse & hero doctor go to beg the administrator & when they arrive the nurse cheerfully goes off to make coffee while the two doctors confer about how to gave the program. There were some interesting editing oopsies i.e. fights & stunts were filmed from bad angles so one could see how obviously punches were pulled & actors sort of 'fell on command'. The end of the movie's a full page of a magazine or paper proclaiming the main character a hero. If you stop the movie on the frame showing this page you find the same paragraphs repeat throughout the article. Whoever wrote that page didn't read the script, because the first paragraph reads "…following the dramatic turn of events culminating in the murder of a scientist and inventor of a sensational new therapy."The next paragraph readers "Convicts of the state prison had volunteered to take the tests which might mean death to them." That portion of the article alternates repeatedly (starting on top of the next column) with "...was so intent on the success of his experiments that he volunteered to take the tests himself. Death will no doubt delay the progress of the experiments."Of course, in 1950 other than the editors no one had the ability to stop & view a single Frame at a time nor watch a scene in slow- motion to critique it, but that doesn't let them off the hook for failure to catch errors.Despite these minor glitches, this still remains a watchable movie Which starts with an implausible idea & manages to convert it into some rather good plot twists and (in 1950 at least), a surprising ending where the hero's killed (I found myself expecting the hero- doctor had expected to find the bad guy/convict there & prevented being killed) a (fairly) minor character comes to the (experiment's) rescue & risks his own life to save the day.

howdymax 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

mosoul An intriguing crime story with radiation as the plot's pivotal element. A group of Alcatraz convicts volunteer to be guinea pigs in an experiment seeking to find a cure for a blood disease (apparently related to leukemia). The convicts led by Robert Shayne (the old Superman TV show's Inspector Henderson) are only interested in gaining their freedom. The unexpected effect the radiation has on one prisoner subject leads a doctor and a nurse into a dangerous investigation which is their only hope to salvage their now damaged careers. The current negative attitude towards radiation adds an ironic counterpoint to the protagonists' noble desire to cure said blood disease, which incidentally has infected the nurse's brother. Good atmosphere and a taut narrative make this B picture worth watching.