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Clinton T. Duffy (Paul Kelly) suddenly has a job few would ever want. He’s the interim warden at San Quentin, given the job for 30 days after violence and corruption swept what was then the nation’s largest prison facility.
Duffy aims to make his few days matter, cracking down on notorious guards, wiping out a stool-pigeon network and hiring the institute’s first female nurse (Joanne Dru). The reforms take hold and Duffy’s 30 days would become 12 years.
Based on his memoir, Duffy of San Quentin tells the story of the warden’s pivotal early tenure through the prism of his interactions with volatile inmate Edward Harper (Louis Hayward).
Filmmaker Walter Doniger guides the action and would go on to make the prison film The Steel Cage (with Kelly and Maureen O’Sullivan returning as the Duffys) and explored life behind bars again in The Steel Jungle. As a trivia note to this film: look for DeForest Kelly in the role of a detective.
Original Release
02/09/1954
US Release
02/09/1954
Links
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Louis Hayward | Edward 'Romeo' Harper |
Joanne Dru | Anne Halsey |
Paul Kelly | Warden Clinton T. Duffy |
Maureen O'Sullivan | Gladys Duffy |
George Macready | John C. Winant |
Horace McMahon | Pierson |
Irving Bacon | Doc Sorin |
Joel Fluellen | Bill Lake |
Joe Turkel | Frank Roberts |
Jonathan Hale | Boyd |
Directors
Writers
Walter Doniger, Clinton T. Duffy, Dean Jennings, Berman Swarttz
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Louis Hayward | Edward 'Romeo' Harper |
Joanne Dru | Anne Halsey |
Paul Kelly | Warden Clinton T. Duffy |
Maureen O'Sullivan | Gladys Duffy |
George Macready | John C. Winant |
Horace McMahon | Pierson |
Irving Bacon | Doc Sorin |
Joel Fluellen | Bill Lake |
Joe Turkel | Frank Roberts |
Jonathan Hale | Boyd |
Michael McHale | Pinto |
Sandy Aaronson | Guard |
George Barrows | Convict |
Marshall Bradford | Lowell - Convict in Hospital Ward / Lowell |
Peter Brocco | Nealy |
George Bruggeman | Convict |
James Conaty | Prison Board Member |
Rudy Germane | Convict |
Stuart Holmes | Judge |
John Indrisano | Convict in Hospital Ward |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Walter Doniger | Producer |
Berman Swarttz | Producer |
William Stephens | Producer |