San Quentin 1937

Ex-Army officer Steve Jameson, Pat O’Brien the yard captain at San Quentin, meets San Francisco night club singer May Kennedy Ann Sheridan. May’s brother, Joe “Red” Kennedy Humphrey Bogart, is on the run from the police and is arrested when he visits her.

Red arrives in San Quentin and fights a hardened inmate, Sailor Boy Hansen Joe Sawyer in the courtyard on his first day. Jameson disciplines him, setting a tone of order inside the yard. May begins a romance with Jameson, and she learns that he is the man responsible for running the prisoners’ days.

Jameson responds by instituting a clear system to separate the hapless lawbreakers from the hardened criminals, and he assigns Joe to a road construction camp outside the prison. Lieutenant Druggin Barton MacLane, the former head guard who resents Jameson’s reforms, quietly resents the changes and even schemes to challenge the new order. He covertly places Hansen on the same road crew, hoping to undermine Jameson from within.

Hansen hatches a plan to break out, and Red initially refuses to join him. His stance changes, however, when he learns that May and Jameson are involved romantically, raising the stakes for loyalty and duty. Hansen’s girlfriend arrives at the construction site, pleading for help with a flat tire, and Hansen volunteers to assist—where two guns hidden in a toolbox come into play. With the guns in hand, Hansen and Red seize a guard, escape, and surge into a tense chase.

The pursuit ends with Hansen’s car wrecking; he dies, while Red slips away and makes for May’s flat, only to find Jameson already there. A violent confrontation ensues—Red shoots at Jameson, injuring him slightly, and is shot by a police patrol. Severely wounded, Red crawls back toward the prison gates.

In his last moments, Red musters just enough strength to reach the gate and asks the guards to tell Jameson he came back. He consoles himself with a vow that the inmates should learn to respect Jameson, whose hard-earned discipline has redefined the yard and its chain of command.