From the play by John Wexley about men on Death Row in an Oklahoma prison pursuing a desperate escape attempt. The main character is Richard Walters, sent to Death Row for killing his business partner in a dispute over money. He is innocent, as a flashback shows, but could not prove it at trial. In the eight cells on Death Row are:

Cell 1 Joe Berg (George Stone)

Cell 2 Sonny Jackson (Daniel Haynes)

Cell 3 Fred Mayer (Al Hill)

Cell 4 Killer John Mears (Preston Foster)

Cell 5 Richard Walters (Howard Phillips)

Cell 6 D'Amoro (Noel Madison)

Cell 7 Kirby (Alan Roscoe)

Cell 8 Eddie Werner (Paul Fix)

Drake is the main Death House guard.

Ave Maria is playing as the message from Warden Lewis Lawes scrolls by at the opening: "murder on the heels of murder is not the solution." This will clearly be an anti-death penalty film.

Richard Walters is sentenced to death for murder, taken directly to Death Row and given an early appointment with the electric chair. He is put in Cell 5, where a guard tells him he is just in time for the parade: "Number 1 burns in half an hour."

Number 4 talks to Walters: "Names don't mean much from now on." The other convicts sound off from their cells. Number 1 is highly agitated, Number 8 is wailing; he got a stay and awaits a lunacy commission hearing. Berg in Cell 1 has 20 minutes left. The guard is listening to the radio, and Jackson in Cell 2 starts singing a gospel song.

The are testing the electric chair, which makes Berg sick. He has a pain, near his heart. Someone was executed last week--fast turnover on this Row. He's thinking of his wife, Elaine. Berg is praying on his knees: "Why do I have to die?"

The guards come on the Row. The chaplain comes in to pray with Berg. (Is he Jewish?) Berg is talkative as he goes to the chair. He is singing "My Blue Heaven." The warden allows him to say goodbye to "the boys." He goes down the row of cells. Fred says he'll see him in three weeks--again, executions move fast here.

Berg tells Walters he's glad he met him. "Well, this is the last mile." (16:30)

The door to the execution room in stuck for a moment. Then it open, and the generator cycles up.

In the noise a flashback: Dick Walters is angry with his business partner for taking the tax money from the gas station. He tells his mother that Max, his partner, has drawn out the state tax money. He's going to settle it with Max: "the partnership ends tonight."

While Max and Dick are arguing, a cop comes by. A few moments later, after Max has told Dick he can have his share of the station, a car pulls up. Two men come in to rob the place. Dick tries to pull out a gun. In the struggle with the robber, he shoots Max by accident. The robbers slug Dick and get away. The cop comes back to find Dick holding the gun over Max's body.

The cop and Dick's mother have to testify at trial. The jury finds Dick Walters guilty of first-degree murder. At the end of the flashback, he collapses in his cell.

Walters execution date of September 13 arrives; the other men are still alive on the Row. Walters has only two hours left. Why hasn't his mother been able to get a stay? Jackson tells him to keep praying. Jackson starts singing "All God's Children Got Shoes." He says it's a lie; there are two heavens, one for blacks and one for whites. And two hells as well.

The guard bring Walters a telegram from his mother: the prison board has turned her down. The guard tells Walters he'll burn: the Governor's out of town.

The Warden gives the order to start the execution from his office. He wonders: Is it of any use? Do they know afterward they've been punished?

The guard come in to shave Walters. They leave his hair but shave his leg. Callahan comes to read the death warrant. Walters has Callahan take down a last message to his mother. Two guards bring his last supper (36:00). Walters can't finish it. He is about to have a breakdown. Eddie Werner in Cell 8 is reciting deathhouse poetry. They're all yelling at each other. An elderly priest comes to visit Walters in his cell.

On the outside, police are chasing two armed robbers, whose vehicle runs off the road and crashes. Both men are killed. On one of them, the cop finds the inscribed watch the robber had taken from Dick Walters in the gas station robbery (41:30). It is five minutes to seven, and Walters's version of the robbery is substantiated.

O'Connor, the priest, talks to John Mears--tells him to get some rest. Mears rejects the faith O'Connor tells him Walters has: "that ain't faith, that's just closing your eyes and wishing."

Mears wishes he had faith. The priest tells him he knows he would not be afraid to walk through the door and die.

O'Connor will soon have the chance to show his bravery. Mears grabs the guard by the neck and gets his gun, then points it at the priest. He takes the keys from the unconscious guard and locks the priest up. Mears lets the other men out. Walters says he can breathe: he feels like he's been born again. Eddie Werner in Cell 8 refuses to go along. He is nuts. Mears is the boss over the other five convicts. He wants to capture the other guards alive.

The guards are playing cards when the cons come in. One shoots Jackson, and Mears shoots him in return. The alarm sounds: a shot fired in the deathhouse.

Sonny Jackson dies. Mears locks his captives up in the Death Row cells. He's giving the order: "I'm the law now." Killer Mears calls up the Warden's office. He wants a car and head start, or he'll start killing guards one at a time. The Warden refuses to bargain, so Mears has D'Amaro execute a begging Drake on his knees. They throw his body out a hold in the cell wall.

Mears lets one guard, O'Flaherty, go, to tell the Warden he means business. He's going to kill the other four hostages, starting with Callahan, the Warden's brother-in-law. He's going to kill him at 7:25 p.m., in ten minutes.

O'Flaherty advises the Warden to give in, to give them a car. The Warden wants to, but he says he can't give in, for what it would mean to other prisons. Mears gets Callahan to say goodbye to the Warden: "Save me, Frank. You can't let me go like this." The Warden cuts him off.

O'Connor tells him the Warden is doing his duty. Callahan: "Duty? Who cars about duty when it means our lives?"

The Warden orders the cellblock bombed (1:00:40). Callahan has 30 seconds left. Mears asks him how he feels. Callahan asks him where he should stand. Mears tells him, "Right where you are," and shoots him down.

The guards attack with bombs and machine guns. Kirby goes down.

Mears says he would like to walk in the sun, see a woman again. One of the remaining hostages is shot by the guards. Mears is going to shoot the priest. D'Amaro intervenes, and Mears shoots him. When Mears stumbles into range of the guards' guns, Walters jumps forward to push him away and gets shot down. "They got me," he says (1:04:30).

The Warden gets a call from the DA in Moreland: new evidence to prove Walters' innocence. Too late, the Warden says, the break in the deathhouse began an hour ago.

Walters is badly wounded. He asks Mears to shoot him. Mears is about to, when they hear the Warden trying to call in. Mears fixes the phone line to hear the Warden say that Walters can get a reprieve. Mears says: "I think I'll go get a little air," and walks out where the guards can shoot him. Only the priest and Walters are left alive.

In the last scene, Walters and Father O'Connor are in the hospital, talking about Mears. "He seemed to go crazy after he got the keys." The Warden brings Walters his pardon. Walters gets a kiss from his mother (1:10:00).