Filmed on sets at Warner Bros. and at MGM, where the cell block sets for The Big House were still standing. Spencer Tracy had made a big impression on stage as a prisoner in 'The Last Mile' and this won him good notices, but still didn't make him a star. And the film didn't exactly put Bette Davis on the map either (though she loved working with the pretentions-free actor). Seen today, it's a tight, taut drama, written by Wilson Mizner and Brown Holmes, based on Warden Lewis Lawes non-fiction account of his own tenure as governor in that prison and his argument for the abolition of the death penalty.
Tracy is the tough-guy gangster who is worn down by fair governor Arthur Bryon, gets compassionate release to visit dying Davis, gets involved in the murder of Louis Calhern (though Bette actually popped him), returns to Sing Sing and faces the death penalty rather than let her take it.
With Lyle Talbot, Warren Hymer, Grant Mitchell, Ward Bond. That wasn't Paul Muni on death row (I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang had already come out) but Harold Huber (The Thin Man).
Well photographed by Barney McGill.
Typical short, violent, fast-moving type of film you associate with Warner Bros. in this period (it was actually released under the First National name).
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