A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Acting
Cagney's volcanic frustration trapped behind stone walls.
Direction
Keighley squeezes claustrophobia from every prison corridor.
Writing
The reporter-to-convict arc hits different in 1939.
Director
William Keighley
James Cagney
Frank Ross
George Raft
'Hood' Stacey
Jane Bryan
Joyce Connover
George Bancroft
Prison Warden John Armstrong
Maxie Rosenbloom
Fargo Red
Stanley Ridges
Mueller
Alan Baxter
Pole Cat Carlisle
Victor Jory
W.J. Grayce
John Wray
Pete Kassock
Edward Pawley
Dale
Willard Robertson
Lang
Emma Dunn
Mrs. Ross
Paul Hurst
Garsky
Louis Jean Heydt
Lassiter
Joe Downing
Limpy Julien
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Raft insisted on script changes so his character wouldn't die, reportedly saying 'I ain't never died on screen and I ain't gonna start now.' The compromise? Stacey lives but goes back to prison.
Shot during the tail end of Hollywood's prison film boom, this rode the wave of public fascination with reform and corruption—just before the genre got sanitized by the Production Code.
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