By Frank Miller
We Who Are About to Die
Brief Synopsis
A San Quentin inmate's death row conviction is reversed.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Christy Cabanne
Director
Preston Foster
Steven Mathews
Ann Dvorak
Connie Stewart
John Beal
John E. Thompson
Ray Mayer
Bright Boy Schultz
Gordon Jones
Slim Tolliver
Film Details
Also Known As
Condemned Row, One Man Came Back
Genre
Drama
Prison
Release Date
Jan
8,
1937
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 1 Jan 1937
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the book We Who Are About to Die by David Lamson (New York, 1936).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
After his designs for a new aircraft are rejected by his conservative boss, engineer John E. Thompson quits his job and makes plans with his fiancée, travel agent Connie Stewart, to leave New Mexico for California. While on his way to pick up his last paycheck, John is ambushed by gangsters, who steal his car and use it and his company coat to rob the payroll office. During the hold-up, the paymaster is killed by "Mac" MacAndrews, the gang's leader, and a little boy is run over as the gangsters make their escape. The gangsters dump John's car and release John, who then is arrested by the police. Implicated by the physical evidence, John is convicted of the crimes by Knight, an ambitious district attorney, and by the revenge-hungry public, and is sentenced to hang. Sure that John is innocent, Connie convinces police detective Steven Mathews, who had helped to convict John, to re-interview a guard who had been injured during the robbery. When the guard relates a story different from his trial testimony, Steven suspects that John was framed and pursues a new investigation of his case. In prison, John grows increasingly despondent and skeptical as his death row neighbors leave for the gallows one by one. Unknown to him, however, two of the gangsters, Bright Boy Schultz and Clyde Beasley, also have been framed by a greedy Mac and are serving time in the same prison. Filled with guilt, Bright Boy sends a message through the prison pipes to John that he knows the identity of the real killer. Bright Boy is unable to finish his message, however, and an hysterical John is sent to the "hole." After Clyde stabs Bright Boy to death in the prison yard, Steven drugs Clyde and drags Mac's name out of him. In spite of Steven's mounting evidence against Mac, the governor refuses to stay John's approaching execution. On the same day that John is to die, Mac poisons his double-crossing cohort, Nick Trotti, and takes off for Chicago with the payroll money. As John's neighbors stage a violent protest in their cellblock, Steven and Knight catch Mac with Nick's corpse and the stolen cash. With minutes to spare, John is saved from execution, and exonerated, he leaves for California with Connie.
Director
Christy Cabanne
Director
Cast
Preston Foster
Steven Mathews
Ann Dvorak
Connie Stewart
John Beal
John E. Thompson
Ray Mayer
Bright Boy Schultz
Gordon Jones
Slim Tolliver
Russell Hopton
"Mac" MacAndrews
J. Carrol Naish
Nick Trotti
Paul Hurst
Tip Fuller
Frank Jenks
Clyde Beasley
John Wray
Jerry Daley
Frank M. Thomas
Carter
Barnett Parker
John Barkley
Willie Fung
Kwong
John Carroll
Joe Donahue
Dewitt Jennings
Mike Brannigan
Landers Stevens
Warden Lawton
John "skins" Miller
Macy
Howard Hickman
Prison chaplain
Robert E. O'connor
Mitchell
Willie Best
Porter
Russell Hicks
District Attorney Knight
Wilfred Lucas
Yard captain
Oscar Apfel
Armitage
Tom Mcguire
Row captain
Bryant Washburn
Martin Blake
Edward Lesaint
Judge
Sonny Bupp
Crew
James Anderson
Assistant Director
Samuel J. Briskin
Executive Producer
Denzil A. Cutler
Recording
Feild Gray
Art Director Associate
Paul Perez
Contr to trmt
Robert Planck
Photography
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Arthur Roberts
Editing
William N. Robson
Contr to trmt
Edward Small
Company
John Twist
Screenwriter
Film Details
Also Known As
Condemned Row, One Man Came Back
Genre
Drama
Prison
Release Date
Jan
8,
1937
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 1 Jan 1937
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the book We Who Are About to Die by David Lamson (New York, 1936).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
We Who Are About to Die
RKO turned David Lamson's blistering account of his 13-month stay in San Quentin into a film that, though it strays significantly from the truth, anticipates the rise of film noir. In place of Lamson's account of going through four trials after being falsely accused of killing his wife, the studio constructed the tale of an unemployed aircraft engineer (John Beal) kidnapped by mobsters who frame him for murder. Where it took the Supreme Court to free Lamson, Beal's fate hinges on his determined fiancée (Ann Dvorak), who has to convince the case's lead inspector (Preston Foster) that it was all a big frame. What survived from the original was the unstinting picture of prison life, with cinematographer Robert Planck pouring on the atmosphere years before he took a more glamorous turn filming such MGM musicals as Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Royal Wedding (1951). The film also benefits from a strong cast, with Foster at his tough-guy best as the police detective, Dvorak (on loan from Warner Bros.) powerful as the fiancée and Beal as the sympathetic victim of circumstances. There's also a scene-stealing turn by J. Carrol Naish as an Italian gangster involved in the crime.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
We Who Are About to Die
RKO turned David Lamson's blistering account of his 13-month stay in San Quentin into a film that, though it strays significantly from the truth, anticipates the rise of film noir. In place of Lamson's account of going through four trials after being falsely accused of killing his wife, the studio constructed the tale of an unemployed aircraft engineer (John Beal) kidnapped by mobsters who frame him for murder. Where it took the Supreme Court to free Lamson, Beal's fate hinges on his determined fiancée (Ann Dvorak), who has to convince the case's lead inspector (Preston Foster) that it was all a big frame. What survived from the original was the unstinting picture of prison life, with cinematographer Robert Planck pouring on the atmosphere years before he took a more glamorous turn filming such MGM musicals as Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Royal Wedding (1951). The film also benefits from a strong cast, with Foster at his tough-guy best as the police detective, Dvorak (on loan from Warner Bros.) powerful as the fiancée and Beal as the sympathetic victim of circumstances. There's also a scene-stealing turn by J. Carrol Naish as an Italian gangster involved in the crime.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were One Man Came Back and Condemned Row. David Lamson, on whose book this film is based, served thirteen months in San Quentin Penitentiary before the Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction, according to New York Times. According to Hollywood Reporter, Lamson, who was accused of murdering his wife, endured three trials before being declared innocent. A Hollywood Reporter production news item adds Bruce Mitchell and Philip Morris to the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed.
