One of the best of all prison pictures, thanks not only to Don Siegel’s sharp direction and a good script (by Richard Collins), but also to the creative input of producer Walter Wanger, who had been an inmate himself and was concerned about making this as authentic and as commercially uncompromised as possible. (The picture was shot on location in California’s Folsom state prison, with many inmates cast in secondary parts.) The care taken with this grim 1954 drama paid off; it was Siegel’s first major hit. With Neville Brand, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, and Emile Meyer. (JR)