Devil's Island (Warner Bros.) (1939)

PUBL seats iT’ Is There An Escape From Devil's Island? By Arthur Janisch Where the prisoners dream only of La Belle—which is not a desired beautiful woman but Freedom. But La Belle, to most Devil’s Island prisoners, always was just an entrancing dream never to be realized. Regardless of the sentence given a prisoner in a trial court, it meant life on Devil’s Island. If he were sentenced, say, to five years on the Island, he was required to spend an additional five years as a “citizen” of the colony, earning his own living. The joker was in the second half of this double sentence. A “liberated” prisoner could not earn his own living, let alone earn money to pay his way back to his native land. No food, clothing or shelter were provided these “libres”; they had to work and earn them. But as all the work in the colony was done by convicts, there was nothing left for the libre to do except to help unload occasional ships. And this was the work that the libres, weakened by brutal treatment, starvation and fever, were unfit to do. Many dropped dead in their tracks while attempting the hard labor. Statistics reveal that the average life of a white man after he arrived at Devil’s Island was five years. There have been exceptions to the rule, however, but these are few. Benjamin Velmo, known as the “Dean of Devil’s Island,” served 47 years in the colony. He arrived there in 1887 Walter Connolly's Wite Lone Woman in Cast Of ‘Devil's Island Nedda Harrigan, who plays the only adult feminine role in “Devil’s Island,’ the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, has never appeared in a motion picture with Walter Connolly, her husband, and recently rejected an opportunity to play a role in the same picture. “He is such a marvelous actor,” she said one day, while discussing the matter, “that I would be frightened speechless. I know I would give a miserable performance because I would be trying so hard to please him and so afraid that I would fail.” Which makes it apparent that there is no professional jealousy, that bugaboo of marriage in Hollywood, in their love. Nedda met and married Walter when both were with Margaret Anglin in “Woman of Bronze”’ on Broadway. But that was different. “Now,” says Nedda, “just the thought of playing with Walter brings the old inferiority complex out in full force. For one thing, I would be afraid he would neglect his own role to throw scenes my way. I want to stand on my own feet, doing the best I can without help from anybody.” Nedda Harrigan plays the wife of the cruel commandant of Devil’s Island. Grateful for an operation on her child, she aids an innocent doctor to escape. and was pardoned in 1984, According to records, of 45,000 convicts released, less than 1500 were known recently to be living. Attempted escapes are frequent but the authorities pay little regard to them. In a recent year 250 escaped and 22 were recaptured, with the fate of the others in doubt. Three convicts escaped in October, 1937, and after a 77 day trip by small boat from Devil’s Island, reached St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Treacherous rivers and deadly jungles on each side separate the colony from Dutch Guiana and Brazil. If the escaped men can get past the quick sand traps, the spider crabs, bushmaster snakes, poisonous centipedes, boa constrictors, jaguars, army ants, lethal mosquitoes, vampire bats and vicious monkeys which roar like lions in the jungles, they are apt to die of starvation and fever. Only the most expert mariner, and one who has well planned and well provisioned his trip, can hope to go down the Maroni river in that region, survive the terrific surf where river meets ocean and safely navigate the ocean to a haven of security. Trinidad is 750 miles from Devil’s Island. For every man who successfully escapes, scores, unless they perish in these perils, are glad to return to the medieval punishment and horrors of Devil’s Island. All this is vividly shown in “Devil’s Island,” coming Friday to the Strand. Convicts On Ships Lived In Cages Convicts on the prison ship enroute to ‘“Devil’s Island,” it was revealed during filming of the Warner Bros. drama of that title opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, were confined in two cages, each approximately 65 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet, in the hold of the ship. If a riot threatened, valves in the ceiling of the cages could be opened which would shower the men with live steam, Under these conditions many became fatally ill and died on shipboard. Survivors have oft considered themselves less fortunate than those who died. The film graphically portrays these grim realities. Mat 201—30c RIOT ON DEVIL'S ISLAND—As guards get ready to execute a prisoner (guillotine may be seen in background), the convicts revolt and battle the officials in a scene from “Devil's Island,” now at the Strand Theatre. Erect Whole Colony For Devils Island” Mr. Webster says an island is “a tract of land, usually of moderate extent, surrounded by water.” So motion picture technicians built an island, entirely” surrounded by water, thirty miles out in the San Fernando Valley, where there is no water. It was just one of the many feats they performed in the filming of ‘“Devil’s Island,” Warner Bros.’ breath-taking picturization of life and adventure in the dread penal colony, starring Boris Karloff, which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. On the Island were erected the prison barracks, guard houses and commandant’s mansion. These buildings surrounded a court-yard, in a corner of which stood a guillotine as an everpresent reminder to the prisoners of what their fate would be if they didn’t mend their ways. The set, which was a replica of the real Devil’s Island was built under the supervision of Capt. Louis Van Den Ecker, famed soldier, military expert and technical advisor. Like the real Devil’s Island, the set could be circled on foot Mat 205—30c ONCE A RESPECTED DOCTOR, now a despair-ridden convict on Devil's Island, Boris Karloff, center, is brought before officials in scene from the dramatic “Devil's Island,” Warner Bros. film now at the Strand Theatre. [16] within 20 minutes. A huge canal was built around the island and the water was supplied from wells dug expressly for the purpose. In’ contrast’ to" this™ hugé én gineering feat was the task of a humiliated young man by the name of Maurice Goldman. Maurice, or “Goldie” as he is popularly known, was property man on the picture. One of his tasks was to cut out paper dolls for little Rolla Gourvitch to use in a scene. One day he had to provide a huge sled filled with plaster-ofparis rocks. The rocks were made of plaster-of-paris so they would be lighter, but it was all Boris Karloff and seven other actors portraying convicts could do to pull the sled, because it was so heavy. Among other things, he had to supply authentic cigars, lizards and turtles, soup and dry bread. The care of reptiles requires a special knowledge of its own, and were it not for the extreme resourcefulness of these prop men, the company would have lost many of the fragile lizards. Incorrigibles Escape Though incorrigibles were forced to work in the nude, wearing only a straw hat, in the jungles to keep them from escaping into the jungles, some actually did escape and reached Europe it was learned by technical men working on Warner Bros.’ “Devil’s Island,” which comes to the Strand next Friday. Script Changed By Cold Because little Rolla Gourvitch, seven-year-old starlet in “Devil’s Island,” the Warner Bros. picture starring Boris Karloff which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, contracted laryngitis, the tre, contracted laryngitis, and because of the fact that she was unable to speak her lines in no more than a whisper, the script had to be altered to say that the child had a bad cold. Boris Karloff Avers Hed Be Slippery Prisoner to Hold Boris Karloff remarked one day that he would be a difficult person to keep locked up in prison, because he has made an intensive study of jail breaks and criminal psychology over a period of years. “The years I have spent,” said the famed bogey-man who is the star of ‘“‘Devil’s Island,” the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, “in studying official records and delving into prison records have supplied me with a vast amount of information on the subject. “Thoughts of escape are uppermost in every prisoner’s mind. He spends his time figuring out in careful detail how to get out, mainly to keep himself from going ‘stir crazy.’ To most of them these thoughts are merely a diversion but it is amazing to me that more don’t try to carry out their carefully thought-out plans. “Motion pictures have been criticized for the clever and seemingly impossible artifices they have permitted men to devise in escaping from prison. History, however, reveals methods so unusual that actually have been used that no script writer would dare include them in a screen story. “There is the case in ancient Egyptian history of the man who used a periscope breathing apparatus to enable him to tunnel through many yards of sand to escape from prison. The subject has been a fascinating one for writers over hundreds of years. “Censorship hampers the filming of prison breaks in modern pictures. Often graft and bribery is necessary to effect an escape and it isn’t supposed to be cricket to let the public know that it would be possible to bribe the modern prison official.” Football Star On Set Nicknamed “Fumble” Kenny Washington, famed U.C.L.A. colored football star, won the nickname of “Fumble” because of his nervous clumsiness in serving the stars while he was working last summer as a service man at the Warner Bros. Studio. One day, however, when he dropped a glass of water in Boris Karloff’s lap, he did it so he could reach up and grab a heavy pair of pliers which had dropped out of an electrician’s pocket high on a parallel and was headed straight for Karloff’s head. The mishap took place between scenes of “Devil’s Island,” the Warner Bros. melodrama opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. Convicts Were Targets Convicts unable to endure longer the hard labor and brutality of life on “Devil’s Island,” frequently made themselves deliberate targets for the guards’ bullets or mutilated their bodies so they no longer could be assigned to working details, it was learned during the filming of Warner Bros.’ “Devil’s Island,” which opens Friday at the Strand.