Ellis Island
Cast & Crew
Phil Rosen
Donald Cook
Peggy Shannon
Jack La Rue
Joyce Compton
Bradley Page
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1926, after a New York federal reserve bank is robbed of a million dollars, Ted Kedrick, Jan Imarski and Anton Lonelli are each sentenced to ten years in prison for the theft, but the money is never found. In 1936, they are released. As Kedrick is about to be deported through Ellis Island, a crook posing as Peter James of the Treasury Department offers to spring him if he will split the million fifty-fifty. A gang of thieves intervenes and abducts Kedrick to a warehouse, where they beat him to make him talk, but he resists. Kedrick's niece, Betty Parker, who has come to the island to say good-bye, is suspected of helping Kedrick escape. Gary, an Ellis Island official, believes that Betty is innocent, and he goes with his friend Kit to warn her. She tells them that strange men once approached her about the bank heist, but she told them that the only name she remembered was Dan Kilemo. The man posing as James locates Kedrick and helps him escape. When Kedrick says he will only talk to his niece, "James" gets him drunk and deposits him on Betty's couch, then bugs the room and waits in the room above Betty's apartment. Gary and Kit take Betty home. Gary discovers the bug and "James," but thinks "James" is a real government agent. While Gary and "James" are upstairs, the gang kidnaps both Kedrick and Betty, with the hope that Kedrick, to save Betty, will talk. Gary then researches the name "Kilemo" and discovers that a man named Dan Kilemo was interred at the Rosedale Cemetery in New Jersey shortly after the robbery. The first and second letters of Kedrick, Imarski and Lonelli spell Kilemo. At the cemetery, the gang digs up Kilemo's grave after tying Kedrick and Betty to trees. Kit then remembers that the real James showed up at Ellis Island, and he warns Gary, who tries to hold up the thieves himself, but only gets himself tied to a tree. As daylight comes, the gang unearths the coffin and while they transport the money bags from the coffin to the car, Kit releases the hostages. The James impostor then takes off in the getaway car and Gary, Kit, Kedrick and Betty follow, with the thieves in pursuit. Gary apprehends "James" and hides in a barn with the others, as the thieves arrive. Gary then removes the money from the getaway car and pushes the car out of the barn into the thieves' hands while releasing the farmer's honey bees. The thieves take cover, and the real James arrives with the police and arrests them. Kit's fiancée Adele, who had threatened to marry someone else when she saw him with a blonde, arrives fearing for his life, and Kit drives her to a neighboring justice of the peace with Gary and Betty as witnesses.
Director
Phil Rosen
Cast
Donald Cook
Peggy Shannon
Jack La Rue
Joyce Compton
Bradley Page
Johnny Arthur
George Rosener
Maurice Black
Matty Fain
Bryant Washburn
Monte Vandergrift
Lew Kelly
Captain E. H. Calvert
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
