One important point about the guards portrayed in the movie.
These were not the sort of guards Alcatraz had in the early years.
When Alcatraz was first opened, a large percentage of the custodial force was made up of veteran guards who were transferred (much like the prisoners were) from other federal prisons, such as Atlanta, Leavenworth and McNeil Island. Most of them had long years of service in various prisons and were very wary of some of the schemes convicts could develop to try to escape. The various things like smoke, noise, etc. mentioned by the OP would almost surely have been noticed and investigated by the types of guards who worked at the prison in the 1930's and 1940's.
However, by the early 1950's these officers began leaving. Some retired. Some transferred to newer facilities where their expertise was needed. Some took promotions which required transferring to other prisons. (In 1948, E.B. Swope replaced James Johnson as Warden. Swope's one-sided managerial style alienated much of the custodial force, likely making them more willing to apply for transfers to other facilities).
The replacements for these officers were a different breed. For the most part, they weren't veteran custodial officers. Many of them had never worked in a prison before starting at Alcatraz. They were men who had sought out a federal civil service job for the security it offered and/or they were simply men who'd grown up in the Bay Area and thought working on Alcatraz would be interesting.
They simply didn't have the experience with convicts that the earlier generation had, thus allowing the escapers to get away with things they never would have earlier on.
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creatorof2002
10 years ago
1. Is that a complaint about the movie itself? because its based on a true story and in real life prison guards tend to not be the brightest of people, Frank Morris had above average intelligence and was definitely smarter than the warden or any of the guards.
2. If you want to talk about "dumb" characters what about that "Wolf" guy? He was a MORON. THREE times in the movie he tried to mess with Frank Morris and he did not get that Morris was way tougher than him? He gets the crap beaten out of him the first time, the 2nd time he is armed with a knife and Frank easily fends him off, then he ends up in isolation for six months then he tries to shank Frank AGAIN but is restrained by Frank's friend from the prison library. If Frank had not escaped would he have tried a fourth time? I mean seriously THAT was the dumbest guy in there and I hope he had to live with knowing his enemy was free and escaped while he rots away in that prison the rest of his life. What a douche that Wolf guy was.
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