There is a great tendency to both review the subject as well as the film when doing a biographical film. In the case of Caryl Chessman we're dealing with a loathsome little punk known as Whit Whittier in the film so they could take some liberties with the facts and not get sued. I have no doubt that Chessman was guilty as sin for most of what he did. But the law in which he was convicted where it was never actually proved that death resulted by his hands or cooperation with those who might have done the death deed was specious and eventually declared unconstitutional.

Caryl Chessman who participated in all kinds of crimes eventually graduated to sex offender as the 'Red Light Bandit' known for shining a red flashlight into cars, pretending to be law enforcement, and then having his way with women passengers. He varied his modus operandi somewhat from case to case, he may have been charged with some things he actually didn't do. He did the colossally stupid thing of representing himself in court and paid for it.

His struggle with the criminal justice system went on for almost a decade before he died in California's gas chamber after the action of this film concluded. He needed a constitutional lawyer and didn't get one.

As is seen in the film Chessman's notoriety and loathsomeness did him in. William Campbell who played a lot of punk types in his salad days excels here. But the story would be better told and under his real name by Alan Alda a generation later.

The picture goes on to answer the question posed by Whit Whittier (William Campbell) in my summary line above. Whittier is the name assigned to the principal character in the film, a stand in for real life criminal Caryl Chessman who's autobiography formed the basis for this movie. The picture briefly traces Whittier's impoverished youth with an eye toward trying to answer his unspoken thoughts on how he landed on Death Row. It's almost a standard narrative on how a young punk starts out by taking up with similar minded thugs, gradually moving up to the gangster life via exposure to harsher forms of incarceration - "The tougher it gets, the better I like it" he proclaims at one point.

A lot of the dialog in the early part of the picture is rather atrocious, though actor William Campbell exudes the kind of punk malice one would expect in a film of this sort. James Dean might have been well suited for the Whittier role however he died the same year this movie was released. A modern remake of the story might be well suited for somebody like Charlie Sheen who Campbell appeared to resemble in a handful of scenes, though Sheen is probably too old now for a role like this. But he's got the bad boy part pretty well down pat.

By the time the picture's over it's not too much of a mystery why Whittier's on Death Row, even if he couldn't figure it out himself. Considering how resourceful he turned out to be in prison by learning the law and using it to his advantage, one wonders why he couldn't have used the opportunity earlier in life to make something more of himself. It's one of those imponderable questions life sometimes presents that has no defining answer.

Fred F. Sears directed this adaptation of Death Row inmate Caryl Chessman's memoirs of being the first criminal ever to be sentenced to death without actually murdering anyone (he fell under the Little Lindbergh Law, kidnapping with bodily harm to the victim). For unexplained reasons, screenwriter Jack DeWitt has changed Chessman's name here to Whit Whittier (!),but the film pulls no punches in detailing his crimes, from boyhood to hard-bitten adult. These episodes, in and out of the slammer, are like a textbook for pulpy B-movies, yet Sears never gets glossy (this is no film-noir). Still, the hammering we get is exhausting (even at 75 minutes, the picture feels lengthy). Crime-buffs will be impressed; others not enamored of the genre might get restless. Vince Edwards has a small part as one of Whittier's later cohorts, six years before his TV fame as "Ben Casey" (and he never gets a close-up!). ** from ****