Cell 2455, Death Row (1955)

Cell 2455, Death Row Film Details

Overview: Whit, condemned and awaiting execution, reviews the events of his life that has brought him to Cell 2455 on San Quentin’s Death Row, a story he had told in a autobiography that became a sensational best-seller. As a boy, the young Wh

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Review: **SPOILERS** Based on the book with the same name “Cell 2455 Death Row” has to do with career criminal and self-thought lawyer Caryl Chessman known in the movie as Whit Whittier played by a Tony Curtis looking William Campbell. It’s July 30, 1954 and Whittier has less then 24 hours to live as he’s scheduled to be strapped into San Quentin’s infamous gas chamber at exactly 9:30 AM the next morning. It’s then that Whittier reflects back on his life and especially the notorious “Red Light Bandit” crimes that put him on death row. We get to see the story of a young man growing up in the Great Depression who turned to crime because he felt that was the only thing that he excels in. As it turned out Whittier’s career in crime was anything but spectacular in him ending up behind bars for longer periods of time then he was a free man. It was in early 1948 while Whittier was out on parole that he was arrested for a series of robberies in L.A that shocked not only the state of California but the entire nation: The Red Light Bandit Crimes. Whittier was not only accused of robbing couples who were smooching in local L.A lovers lanes but also abducting the young women and then raping and sodomizing them! If Whittier was just tried for what the law demanded for the crimes he committed he would have been long forgotten about. What made the case so unusual was that the D.A who indited Whittier used the obscure technicality of the Little Lindbergh Law, a person being injured during a kidnapping, to have him given the death sentence if he were convicted! Not trusting any attorney to defend him Whittier choose to defend himself which, with his brash and arrogant attitude, very probably lead to his conviction. It was while on death row that Whittier educated himself in the law and thus used the law to his advantage! In fact better then any of the top and highest paid criminal lawyers in the United States! As Whittier fought off execution date after execution date behind bars he became a Cause Caleb against the death penalty not only in the United States but the entire Western Industrialized World! The film “Cell 2455 Death Row” concentrated mostly on Whittier life before he was sent to death row which were a number of petty robberies and, which I feel were put into the movie just to spice it up, shootouts with the police. We also see that Whittier was a very smooth operator when it came to the fairer sex in having girlfriends who were more then willing to put up with him despite his abusive attitude and actions towards them. The film ends with a big question mark in Whittier getting another one of his many stays of execution just moments before he was supposed to be executed by the State of California. In real life Whittier or Caryl Chessman whom he actually was in the film held on for six more years on death row until his luck finally ran out on the morning of May 2, 1960 when he was finally, after eight failed attempts by the courts, executed in San Quentin’s gas chamber. Even then Chessman, at the last moment, was granted another stay of execution by the courts but it came in just has the cyanide pills were being dropped making it impossible for him to be saved without a number of those witnessing his execution from being gassed along with him. P.S Even though the makers of “Cell 2455 Death Row” substituted the name Whittier for Chassman in the film his name was seen in the opening credits as the author of the book-Cell 2455 Death Row-that the film was based on. It’s also interesting to note that Whittier was actually Caryl Chessman’s middle name! Something that the makers of the movie obviously knew while most of those watching it didn’t!

Country: United States

Language: English

Duration: 77 min

Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama

Also known as: 死刑囚2455号,Todeszelle 2455,Cell 2455, Death Row,Cel 2455,Cela 2455 – Corredor da Morte,Cella 2455 braccio della morte,Dødscelle 2455,Cell Block,Celda 2455, pabellón de la muerte,Celda 2455. El caso Chessman,Cellule 2455, couloir de la mort,Kuolemanselli 2455,Dödscell 2455,Kelli 2455,Ölüm Hücresi