Plot
After a state senator's bill to abolish chain gangs is rejected by the senate, reporter Cliff Roberts [4] persuades his newspaper to allow him to go undercover as a guard in a chain-gang prison. Equipped with false employment records and a tiny microfilm camera disguised as a cigarette lighter, he tells everyone, including his girlfriend Rita McKelvey, a reporter for a rival newspaper, [5] that he is going on a fishing trip, but actually heads for Cloverdale Prison Farm in the Deep South, where recent incidents have left three inmates dead.
The prison's Captain Duncan supplies labor in the form of chain gangs, which are ostensibly for state construction projects but in reality are exploited by Rita's stepfather, local entrepreneur John McKelvey, for his construction projects. Roberts secretly witnesses and photographs prison conditions, including the capture of an escaped inmate who is punished with an overnight stay in the sweatbox. When a convict named Snead is accused of a minor offense, Captain Duncan orders Roberts to flog Snead at the whipping post. Later, Robert visits Snead in solitary confinement to apologize for the whipping and gains Snead's trust.
Roberts' secret photographs are published in the newspaper, angering McKelvey. [6] When an inmate sees Roberts' photograph in McKelvey's house, Roberts' cover is blown. Snead tries to escape and Roberts joins him. [7] They try to outrun the guards and their dogs across wilderness, but Roberts is shot and left for dead by Captain Duncan, [8] who later pins the blame on Snead. Roberts eventually reaches freedom and is reunited with Rita. Snead is killed while on the run and McKelvey is charged with the exploitation of convict labor for personal gain.
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