A prison-camp convict learns that his younger brother will soon be joining him behind bars.
Direction
Rowland Brown's documentary-realist prison aesthetic.
Acting
Richard Dix's weathered desperation as Duke.
Production
Authentic chain-gang locations, no studio fakery.
Director
Rowland Brown
Richard Dix
Frank 'Duke' Ellis
Tom Brown
John 'Johnny' Ellis
Rochelle Hudson
Mary Ellen
C. Henry Gordon
Blacksnake Skinner
Oscar Apfel
William Billings
Stanley Fields
F.E. Whiteside
John Arledge
Joe Carter
Warner Richmond
Captain Pop-Eye Jackson
Charles Middleton
Matthew the Hermit
Louise Beavers
Rascal's Sweetheart at Visitor's Center (uncredited)
Clarence Muse
Rascal
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released months before I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, this was part of a brief 1932 wave exposing Southern prison conditions—Hollywood's last gasp of pre-Code activism.
The film was heavily censored upon re-release in 1935; original prints showing the full whipping sequence were believed lost until a 35mm nitrate surfaced in 2019.
US
