Gat Brady, a wealthy racketeer who has escaped punishment by bribing juries and by his lawyer’s clever arguments, makes an enemy of Red Carroll when he refuses to help Red’s brother after he commits a paid murder. Because of the notoriety surrounding his court cases, Gat is asked to withdraw his fifteen-year-old daughter Annabel from the exclusive girl’s school she attends. Though he wishes to keep his criminal past a secret from his daughter, Annabel admits that she knows about him and tells him that she loves him regardless of his reputation. In an interview with Miss Tolliver, the school matron, Gat admits that while he “helps other people spend their money,” he has never killed anybody in the process. Gat wants to tour Europe with Annabel, but he is arrested on the docks for tax evasion and is sent to Leavenworth Prison. Before going to serve his sentence, Gat asks Flo Allen, Annabel’s governess, to move in with Annabel and keep her away from the prison. When Flo and Annabel return from Europe, Red finds Annabel at the port and kidnaps her by telling her that her father has escaped and is hiding at his place. Eager to see her father, Annabel goes with Red, but soon discovers his lie and causes the taxi to have an accident. The police arrest Red, and he, too, is sent to Leavenworth. Gat and Red fight when Red insults Annabel, and Gat is transferred to Alcatraz Prison. Meanwhile, George Drake, the young lawyer who originally prosecuted Gat, runs into Annabel, listens to her distress over her father’s mistreatment, and decides to help him. Seeking revenge on Gat, Red misbehaves at Leavenworth in order to be transferred to Alcatraz, where he plans to make sure that Gat does not get paroled. Soon after his transfer, Red is found stabbed in the prison workshop, and Gat, whose knife was used in the murder attempt, becomes the prime suspect. On his deathbed, Red names Gat as his killer, but when Drake arrives to defend him, he proves that Gat’s knife was stolen from him during a diversion caused by the “China Clipper” flying overhead. Further investigations reveal that Red’s killer was fellow convict The Flying Dutchman, who hanged himself after giving undercover agent David Santell a tape-recorded confession of the murder. With the help of Drake and Annabel, Gat is aquitted of the crime and sent back to Leavenworth to serve out the last six months of his sentence. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Alcatraz Island (1937)
