Robert Wise's anti-capital punishment polemic is based on the real life case of Barbara Graham who was executed in San Quentin in 1955 on unreliable evidence. It's a procedural film which explains how the prisoner is processed from their conviction all the way to the death penalty. The system is characterised as barbaric and legally hazardous.
The film casts doubt over her guilt and argues that she was ill-used by a defective judicial system and the parasitic media. It was based on Graham's letters, and articles by Edward Montgomery, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who initially condemned her, but eventually tried to save her from capital punishment.
Graham was a prostitute with a history of petty crime. She lies by reflex. She is also shown as an affectionate mother who suffered at the hands of others. Susan Hayard is superb as the complex, condemned woman. For my money, Hayward was the great American female dramatic actor of the fifties.
Wise actually puts us inside the gas chamber with Graham, trapped within the voyeuristic gaze of the press and representatives of law and order. The film makes a powerful case (though has been criticised for altering facts) but it's Hayward's intense, kinetic performance that ultimately dominates the screen.