Bill Whitlock has been temporarily promoted from guard to warden
at the state penitentiary when he is cruelly informed by the
prison board that he is to be demoted. Meanwhile, mechanic Jimmy
Hutchins becomes unwittingly involved in a jailbreak when Jack
Lang, a confederate of convicts Chuck Burkhart and Buzz Miller,
instructs the unsuspecting Jimmy to meet him in the country so
that he can show the plans to Jimmy's new motor to some friends.
Inside the prison, Burkhart and Miller take Bill hostage and then
force Jimmy to drive the getaway car.
During the chase, a
motorcycle officer is killed, and the escape car runs off the
road. Bill shoots the fleeing Burkhart and confiscates the bag of
stolen money he finds in the dead man's possession. Embittered by
his demotion, Bill decides to keep the booty, while Jimmy is
charged with murder. The boy protests his innocence, claiming as
his alibi the plans that he was to show Lang, but at the trial,
Lang denies his involvement with Jimmy and the boy is sentenced to
hang. After the boy's sentencing, Bill discovers Jimmy's plans in
the bag with the stolen money, thus thrusting him into a moral
dilemma when Jimmy's appeal is denied.
After Lang visits Jimmy and
tells him about Burkhart's loot, Jimmy accuses Bill of stealing
the money and joins in a prison break with Dippy, the prison
trustee. As Dippy and Jimmy speed into a police trap, Bill comes
to their aid, only to be shot by Dippy. Although he dies before he
can testify on Jimmy's behalf, the warden's signed affidavit
clears the boy of all charges.
enmeshed in a prison
break and subsequent murder. Convicted as an accomplice, and sentenced to
die, the boy proclaims his innocence while the prison warden struggles with his
conscience to disclose facts that would clear the kid.
