mark.waltz The short-lived P.R.C. movie production company had a history of making junk in a really short period of time, and other than the classic film noir "Detour", most of their films are quickly forgettable. Like the slightly more well known Monogram, they produced a ton of Z grade westerns, some action films that took clichéd looks at the enemies of World War II, and a smaller amount of horror, dramas and comedies. This is a sort of exploitation drama about a young lady (Jean Parker) who faces the electric chair where her own boyfriend is the one who will pull the switch. Kindly psychiatrist Lionel Atwill rushes to prove her innocence of murder with the help of Parker's younger sister Marcia Mae Jones who truly believed her to be guilty. This is a very tense streamlined drama where nail biting must have replaced popcorn munching. The performances are all very good with Atwill being particularly outstanding. Nice to see him playing a good guy. Also nice to see Jones playing a not so annoying teen for a change! This is one of those times where I give two thumbs up to what was once considered the one movie studio where serious actors did not want to work.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS**** With his girlfriend Mary Kirk Logan, Jean Parker,to be executed that evening at 11:00 PM sharp the Sing Sing Prison executioner Dr. Brad Bradford, Douglas Fowley, is finding it more and more difficult to do his job in juicing her, by pulling the switch, in the prison's hot seat. It's then that the movie goes into back or forward mode, were not quite sure which one, with famed psychologist Charles Finch, Lionel Atwill, telling a group of friends about a letter he received from Mary just before she was to be executed. In it Mary explains how she's been framed in killing the person who was blackmailing her, in revealing her dad's criminal past to her boss, mobster Willy Mullin, Dick Curtis, by someone who did him in while she was locked up in another room in her apartment.The flashback scene comes across as if it were in the present making it more and more difficult to gage what time is taking place in the movie. We slowly get the message that it was Mary's kid sister the bug eyed and spaced out Suzy, Marcia Mea Jones, who knew who killed Millen and is covering it up at the expense of her older sister Mary's life. It's Finch who slowly uncovers the person, through a number of clues, who killed Millen but as usual in movies like this, working against the clock, time is running out for Mary to be saved from being zapped. With the only person who can save her Governor Harrison, Sam Flint, nowhere to be found and contacted before 11:00 PM the time for Bradford to pull the switch.****SPOILERS**** Lionel Atwill in one of his last appearances, he passed away two years later, is excellent as both psychologist and part time private eye Charles Finch who saves the day as well as Mary Kirk's life by getting the Governor, through a radio broadcast, to get the news that Mary is innocent and stop her execution. But it was Mary's boyfriend Brad Bradford that made that all possible by at the very last moment refusing to pull the switch and locking himself up in the power room that gave Finch the needed time to get the word out to Gov. Harrison about her being innocent. Thus stopping in the nick of time Mary's impending execution.

JohnHowardReid By the extremely humble standard of PRC, this is not a bad movie at all. In fact, if we can accept the somewhat unbelievable manipulations of the plot (e.g. the doomed heroine's boyfriend just happens to the state's official executioner) and the implied but strong criticism of the U.S.A. justice system, it's quite a revelation. Here are just a few of many examples of the script's unstated but strongly implied resumé of slip-shod "justice": Short- sighted Byron Foulger's testimony is, to say the least, highly questionable, but the heroine's totally inept attorney doesn't call him to account at all, and the half asleep judge is so totally incompetent that he too notices nothing unusual in either the testimony itself or the way it is interpreted. Nor presumably does the judge intervene when the jury delivers an obviously half-baked verdict. Worst of all, we are then presented with a careless and totally irresponsible governor – presumably a Republican – who doesn't bother to stay at his desk on the night of the execution, let alone ring the prison or have his secretary stand by at the phone. Instead, he's gadding about at a roadside diner! Fortunately, Lionel Atwill manages to hold the plot together and, despite all, the film does emerge as a second feature winner. Jean Parker makes an attractively convincing heroine, while Douglas Fowley holds down an unusual role as the sympathetic executioner. Available on an excellent Grapevine DVD coupled with the far superior 20th Century Fox "B", Behind Green Lights.

Alex da Silva Mary (Jean Parker) is due to die on the electric chair. She makes the walk towards her fate but there is still hope for a reprieve. The story is told by Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) in flashback. Will Mary be saved for a crime that she didn't commit...?...While Atwill is quite good, the acting is all rather forgettable. As is the story. I only watched it yesterday and there are already some gaps in my memory. The cast are uninspiring to watch with Marcia Mae Jones's character as Suzi, Parker's sister, being the standout performance. Not because she is any good, but because she is mad. The fadeout techniques between scenes are interesting to begin with but endless repetition cheapens the device. The film also seems rushed. It's not a particularly bad film but it's nothing great.