BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

dougdoepke Convicted of murdering a competitor's son, a gangster is sent away on a prison train. Meanwhile, his sister tries to warn him of a plot aboard the train to kill him.For the gangster obsessed 1930's, the story is suspenseful but basically routine. Nevertheless, this low-budget production does have several notable features. For one, there's the movie's visual flair. Director Wiles was an art director before climbing into the big chair, so his often exotic camera angles and lurid lighting are unusual for a low budget production. At the same time, his artistic ambitions are on more elaborate display in 1947's The Gangster with Barry Sullivan. Too bad that he died so young and that IMDb doesn't have more info on this interesting moviemaker.Also, the movie's notable for Dorothy Comingore's presence. I wouldn't be surprised if Orson Welles caught her in this programmer before casting her in his classic Citizen Kane (1941). Here she projects a unique loveliness and sweet vulnerability that's almost touching and quite a distance from her near shrewish role in Kane. Then too, there's Clarence Muse as a waiter and a long way from the buffoonish roles generally assigned black performers in those days. Plus, he even turns out to be a treacherous bad guy. Note too, that lead actor Fred Keating's name doesn't appear on the movie's poster. Granted, he's pretty obscure among the Hollywood crowd, but he does a good job here as head gangster Frankie Terris.I guess my only complaint is Nestor Paiva who does go way over the top, even for this exotic flick, as the needling Morose. All in all, the story may be unexceptional, but there remain unusual aspects that make the production worth catching up with.

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.

Ralph Michael Stein "Prison Train" from 1938 was made on a small budget using largely "B" feature actors. And it was meant to be a second feature too. But this film rises above its often desultory although occasionally amusing pre-war genre counterparts. The acting is, overall, good and the plot original.Fred Keating is mobster boss Frankie Terris whose relationship with his kid sister, Louise, is very close. He's certainly overly protective. Louise is played with fine effect by Dorothy Comingore (under the name Linda Winters). She's aware of big brother's criminal activities but she also adores and trusts him. Finding a prosecutor's heat too uncomfortable, Frankie resolves to give away his numbers racket to a rival. Meeting with the fellow, Frankie brings his sister who is asked out by the instantly smitten rival's lawyer son. After a dancing date that guy returns Louise to the apartment she shares with her sibling and the censorious brother sees Louise rebuff an effort to kiss her. Angry, he follows the would-be suitor down an alley and in a fight kills him with a pipe.Frankie is sentenced to a long prison term at Alcatraz (the killing took place on post office property so it's a federal rap and federal time) and he and other convicts are put on a train for the long trip to the West Coast. The father of the slain Lothario vows that Frankie will never make it to Alcatraz and he follows the train with a gang, some on board and others keeping pace by car and Ford Tri-Motor.Frankie's sister manages to get on the train where she's befriended by an undercover officer who is there to insure her brother's safe delivery to prison. Frankie himself learns of the plot to kill him. He is not happy. In fact he's increasingly, would you believe, scared.In "Prison Train," unlike so many "B" films, tension actually builds up and the ending isn't clear at all - until the end. Very unusual for a pre-war movie, a black actor has a serious role, not a Steppin Fetchit-class harmless display of buffoonery to insure no bigot will be discomfited. Clarence Muse, a veteran actor eventually inducted into the Black Film-makers Hall of Fame, is a sinister dining car steward in league with the vengeful father. His role is important to the murder plot and he's not subordinated to the other criminals. Muse, who isn't too well known to most moviegoers, made very many films almost up to his 1979 death and he was a staunch advocate for equal opportunity for blacks.Comingore/Winters had real albeit modest talent that was silenced by the Cold War Hollywood witch hunt, another victim of a mad time.Train buffs will enjoy some nice footage of prewar rolling stock.Very worth seeing.Thanks, Alpha Video. (And I paid $4.99 for this DVD.)7/10

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.