A gray-haired convict, within the shadows of the gallows, tells his story to the prison chaplain beginning twenty years earlier when he was sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.
Acting
Clive Brook's haunted eyes do ALL the work
Direction
Shadow-drenched frames that beg for noir
Director
Max Marcin
Clive Brook
Jim Warren
Peggy Shannon
Norma Davis / Norma Powers
Charles Starrett
Arthur Lawrence
Willard Robertson
Phil Powers
John Wray
Harry Silvers
Frank Sheridan
Joel Clarke
Paul Nicholson
Walter Pritchard
Ben Taggart
Alderman Conners
Charles Trowbridge
Mallory
Wade Boteler
Detective
Robert Homans
Tim - Detective
Patricia Farr
Minor Role (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of the last films produced by Paramount before the Hays Code crackdown, explaining its shockingly bleak worldview.
The prison confession structure directly influenced film noir's obsessive use of flashback narration—think DOUBLE INDEMNITY's poisoned diary.
US
