Jack Holden is the only honest guard in San Quentin. A crooked deputy warden and a small group of incorrigible hardcore cons control the corrupt prison. When the deputy warden is murdered, Holden leads an outcry for reform. He is named Warden, and an inmate uprising puts him and his ideas to the test. The violent confrontation will either prove his theories or return San Quentin to its dark beginnings.
Director William Beaudine assembled a cast of genre reliables (including the villainous Charles Middleton) for this gritty, violent drama. Men of San Quentin was based on a story by journalist Martin Mooney, who had spent time behind bars and saw firsthand the horror of prison life.