Hollywood Can't Seem To Escape Alcatraz

SAN FRANCISCO - The new action release, "The Rock" has a fresh twist: Terrorists take over Alcatraz island and threaten a missile attack. But as a launch pad for Hollywood plots, the infamous former prison is heavily trod turf, a place hijacked long ago by movie-made myths.

Sure, many film fans will remember Burt Lancaster's star turn as murderer-turned-avian-expert Robert Stroud in "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), or Clint Eastwood's ever-resourceful inmate Frank Morris in "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979).

But how many recall David Carradine and Jan Michael Vincent in the TV movie "Six Against The Rock" (1987) or even know about the 1938 flick "King of Alcatraz" starring Anthony Quinn as a prison-gang leader? OK, hopefully nobody except for Rich Weideman, district ranger of the penal colony turned national park. He doubles as the historic prison's informal film archivist, keeping track of dozens of works of escapist Alcatraz fare, many of which should probably never have been released. "I've had to tape these off old movie channels, 2 in the morning kind of things," says Weideman. "Some of them are extremely bad." Even the Smothers Brothers

A partial list of movies in which Alcatraz plays a role as an accomplice includes:

-- "Seven Miles From Alcatraz" (1942). Afraid of bomber attacks in the wake of Pearl Harbor, Alcatraz convicts Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo escape only to land on a tiny island that also figures in the Nazi spy scheme. "It's a really, really bad film," says Weideman. "This is probably the worst one."

-- "Terror at Alcatraz" (1982). Features the Smothers Brothers. "I can't even remember having seen that one."

-- "Skidoo" (1968). GrouchoMarx's ultra-forgettable final film. "Only one copy we're aware of is still in existence." Marx plays a gangster who uses a hot-air balloon to break Jackie Gleason out of The Rock, Weideman says.

-- "Experiment Alcatraz" (1960). "We're trying to get a copy of this . . . A scientist uses Alcatraz inmates to test his theories on curing diseases."

-- "The Enforcer" (1976). "One of the Dirty Harry movies. The mayor of San Francisco is kidnapped and they hide him on Alcatraz. Tyne Daly is killed at the entrance to the cellhouse . . . People are out here looking for the blown-up guard tower 20 years later."

-- "House Across The Bay" (1950). "It's about a woman in San Francisco who falls in love with an Alcatraz prisoner. Someone she sees through binoculars or a telescope or something."

Ready-made set is incentive

Good or bad, Alcatraz movies will continue to be made. One big enticement: The largest prison set in the world, located 500 miles south of here in Culver City, happens to be a vast replica of Alcatraz's steel-barred interior.

It was originally built for a two-part TV-movie, "Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story" (1980), featuring Art Carney, Telly Savalas, Alex Karras and even, in a bit part, Johnny Weissmuller Jr. (though as far as we know he didn't try to swim away). The set's owners plug its availability to filmmakers with the slogan, "Rent a Piece of The Rock!"

But in continuing to make films about a prison that's been closed (since 1963) for longer than it was open, Hollywood also feeds off the very infamy it helped create. (The sounds of cell doors closing at Alcatraz were used in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) as the sounds of closing doors aboard Darth Vader's space station, The Deathstar, reports Weideman.)

The penitentiary on Alcatraz was notorious at its 1934 birth for incarcerating such prohibition-era gangsters as Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. But it was all those "based-on-a-true-story" films in ensuing decades that truly spawned the grim myth of Alcatraz as America's Devil's Island, setting it apart as an inescapable hellhole of infighting inmates and sadistic wardens.

In fact, the true story of Alcatraz is one of incorrigible convicts suffering what Weideman calls "the exquisite torture of routine." The prison's drab, tightly regimented environment was close enough to San Francisco that prisoners could catch the city's sights and sounds, even the coffee and chocolate smells from nearby plants.

Still, some actually preferred its one-to-a-cell isolation, says the ranger, noting that "Machine Gun" Kelly asked to be transferred back to Alcatraz after he was sent elsewhere.

Hollywood's Alcatraz differs

Yet in its most memorable Alcatraz films, Hollywood depicts downright noble individuals bucking a brutal and dehumanizing system.

For example, in the classic "Birdman," Lancaster's Stroud is a gentle genius henpecked by prison authorities. The move doesn't show how dangerously sociopathic the real-life Stroud was toward non-winged creatures, says Weideman. Besides that, he never had birds at Alcatraz; he was shipped there partly because his guano buildup at Leavenworth violated health codes, says Alcatraz park ranger Lori Thomsen.

Even more divergent from the historical record is "Murder in the First" (1995) starring Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater. "Inspired by a true story," the movie followed the case of Henri Young (Bacon), an Alcatraz inmate initially jailed for stealing $5 to feed his starving sister.

In the film, Young is left to rot in a dank, dark dungeon following an escape attempt. He kills a fellow inmate within an hour of his release from "the hole." Young's attorney (Slater) argues inhumane conditions at Alcatraz were to blame. At movie's end, the jury not only grants involuntary manslaughter but calls for a federal investigation of Alcatraz.

Dungeons don't exist

But the real-life Young was in prison for armed robbery and later confessed and served time for another murder. Rangers say the dungeons shown in the movie don't exist at Alcatraz. The closest things to them were closed by the warden before Young arrived. Finally, that jury-requested investigation found Alcatraz to be "humane and well-run," says Thomsen.

And then there's Alcatraz's escape-proof reputation, a true-to-life herald of doom flourished early on in most Hollywood versions: It is surrounded by frigid waters and so on. (Even magician David Copperfield called upon a helicopter to make his televised exit from the island.)

"The Rock" puts a reverse spin on this, subverting the historical truth by presenting Sean Connery as the only inmate ever wily enough to break out. But in fact, there are now nearly a dozen organized swims from The Rock to shore each year. One park volunteer has covered the distance 29 times. Swimmers as young as 12 have completed the 1.5 mile route and top competitors do it in as little as 40 minutes.

Granted, says Weideman, prisoners were at a distinct disadvantage since they were unacclimated to the 50-degree water and without access to tide charts or a lap pool.

David Jacobson is a freelance writer living in San Francisco.