When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in. Though no one is willing to listen to the innocent prisoner's pleas for freedom, Brick's faithful fiancée, Mary, knows that her lover is innocent because she was with him when the crime was committed. As the scheduled execution draws ever nearer, Mary begins to investigate the murder herself.
Acting
Fonda's trembling composure before the electric chair.
Direction
Brahm's Expressionist noir lighting in a B-picture budget.
Editing
Relentless 65-minute sprint to execution morning.
Director
John Brahm
Maureen O'Sullivan
Mary Roberts
Henry Fonda
"Brick" Tennant
Ralph Bellamy
Lieutenant Everett
Alan Baxter
Joe Linden
Stanley Ridges
District Attorney
Henry Kolker
Chief of Police
George Lynn
Joe Taylor
George Douglas
Ed Walsh
Phillip Trent
Frank Burke
Martin Spellman
Jimmy Dugan
Arthur Stuart Hull
Crandall (uncredited)
John Qualen
Dan (uncredited)
William V. Mong
Joe Taylor Sr. (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released the same year as 'The Wrong Man,' this B-picture beat Hitchcock to the wrongful execution trope by nearly two decades.
Columbia cut 20 minutes of prison brutality scenes to avoid offending censors; Brahm always claimed the missing footage explained the eyewitness's coercion.
US
