Search - Prison Shadows on DVD

Down for the permanent count

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 03/27/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"PRISON SHADOWS (1936) - Edward J. Nugent, Lucille Lund, Joan Barclay, Forrest Taylor, Sid Saylor

Boxing whodunit with flailing arm fight scenes that look like bad schoolboy skirmishes. Every opponent "Killer" Harris (Nugent) faces dies suddenly, yet he denies hitting them with any force. Saylor and a trained longhaired mutt are highlights.



Robert F. Hill directed this one for Poverty Row's MERCURY Pictures. His best is as co-director (with Ford Beebe) of FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1938).



Like most such 'B' unit productions, "Prison Shadows" has some interesting elements. All three boxing matches include footage taken from the rafters, an interesting top-of-the-head angle that shows the fighters' footwork. The story opens ringside and we never realize until the bout is over that contestants, crews, referee and audience are all in prison.



Gene Harris landed there when the last man he fought on the outside dropped dead after being KOed. Sports reporters nicknamed him "Killer" Harris because of this fiasco. Following a three year jail term, Gene and his cornerman Dave Moran (Saylor) are paroled and they return to the ring. In his very first match, Harris's opponent dies suddenly! Gene suspects something's wrong, for the man was very zombie-iike during their fight.



Corky, Gene's adorable bowser, cuddles with a towel left on the floor of the dead man's dressing room and she falls ill. The dog is later discovered and brought to a vet, but can't be saved. Her lamented sudden death wasn't in vain however, as we discover in the story's last 20 minutes.





ALPHA VIDEO offers bargain priced, often hard-to-find vintage movies that are ideal for those willing to skip DVD extras. Their transfers show no evidence of restoration, so quality varies from one title to the next, with "fair to good" being the average.



Also from ALPHA:

In DEATH FROM A DISTANCE (1935), a planetarium audience member is shot to death by an unknown killer during an astronomer's lecture."