Tonight on Paramount Channel is back on the air Escape from Alcatraz, masterpiece directed by Don Siegel with protagonist Clint Eastwood and centered on the true story of the triple escape from the infamous San Francisco super prison.
The film was actually shot on Alcatraz Island, whose penitentiary at the time of the shooting had already been closed for fifteen years. Unfortunately for the crew, however, the prison where they closed their doors had become, as you may know, a very popular tourist destination, and in fact during the works, tourists had free access to the island: every half hour from the mainland a new boat arrived, and the comings and goings became such a great distraction for Don Siegel (who had already made a prison film with Addressed to block 11) and his men who at some point the production decided to move the setting of most of the scenes from day to night; filming in the evening the crew managed to get rid of the tourists, since access to the island was allowed only during the day.
The project, as mentioned, taken from a true story, very passionate Clint Eastwood, who studied for a long time his character, Frank Morris: “Morris was a lonely guy“Eastwood declared in an interview.”He had no education, but according to prison records he had an IQ of 133. He could have been very successful in life if he channeled his efforts a little differently! “
Other curiosities about Alcatraz concern the use of hot water: it was one of the few prisons in America at the time to have hot water for showers, but it was a ploy to prevent inmates from escaping (accustomed to hot showers, they would have found the water surrounding the island even colder). As for the fate of the escapeesInstead, a 2015 History Channel documentary showed some photographs found by the Anglin brothers’ family, allegedly taken around 1975 somewhere in South America. Their facial recognition experts found those photos to be authentic, confirming that at least the Anglin may have survived the escape: in 2018, in fact, the two brothers were still considered as fugitives.
Recall that Clint Eastwood will be back this year with Cry Macho, his new film distributed by Warner Bros: for more information, see the official Cry Macho photo.