Plot: In the Westgate Penitentiary, the Warden A. J. Barden is a weak man, and the institution is actually ruled by the ambitious and sadistic Captain Munsey, who uses violence, fear and treachery to control the prisoners. After the suicide of Tom Lister, one of the inmates of cell R17, provoked by Captain Munsey, the prisoners loses their privileges and rest of the group of cell R-17 leaded by Joe Collins is sent to hard and insalubrious work in the drain pipe. Joe uses a successful strategy of war trying to escape, attacking the tower of the penitentiary from the outside with his men, and from inside with the team leaded by the leader Gallagher. However, the plan fails, ending in a bloodshed.
Alternative Plot: Released from solitary confinement, prisoner Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) learns that his supportive wife, Ruth (Ann Blyth), is refusing surgery to treat her potentially deadly cancer, unless Joe can be by her side after the operation. But while Joe is plotting his escape with fellow prisoner Gallagher (Charles Bickford), a violent incident in the prison machine shop causes the entire prison to go into lockdown mode, overseen by the mean-spirited guard Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn).
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