Clifford Davis is the newest inmate on death row. We get a picture of life on death row, focusing mostly on the terrible waiting, until the systematic abuse by guard "Red" Barry leads to tough-guy inmate Mickey Rooney cracking an instigating a jail break. The last act is an increasingly violent stand-off.
The film is an adaptation of a 1930's play by future blacklisted screenwriter John Wexley. You can see how this could have been intended at one point as an expose (it was adapted as an earlier film in 1932), but this film starts with a title card assuring you that everything you see has already been fixed. What you get here is a very theatrical, violent crime drama. It's not bad, but it's certainly not great either.
It might seem like casting Rooney as a tough guy is far against type, but he played a string of these kinds of roles in the 1950's and early 1960's. He's pretty convincing and really only far exceeds the top in the last few minutes.
