You Can’t Get Away with Murder

In New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, Johnny Stone, Billy Halop, defies his sister Madge Stone, Gale Page, and teams with Frank Wilson, Humphrey Bogart, a ruthless mobster. The duo steal a car and then stage a gas station robbery. Later, Johnny borrows Fred Burke’s gun, Harvey Stephens, to give to Frank for a pawnshop robbery. The owner resists and triggers an alarm; Frank kills him and leaves the gun at the scene, so Johnny cannot return it to Fred’s room. When investigators find the gun, they doubt Fred’s alibi and he is arrested and convicted of murder. Meanwhile, based on fingerprint evidence, Frank and Johnny are arrested and convicted of the gas station robbery. All three men are sent to Sing Sing.

Johnny is not as hardened as Frank and is tormented by the thought that Fred might face execution. Frank repeatedly insists that Johnny keep playing dumb, warning that confessing could seal their fates. The prison authorities grow suspicious of their uneasy alliance and transfer Johnny from the shoe factory to the prison library, run by a mild-mannered older convict named Pop, Henry Travers.

Madge begs Johnny to tell the truth, still unaware of his own involvement, while Pop privately appeals to his conscience. Fred’s lawyer Carey, John Litel, eventually deduces that Johnny took Fred’s gun and that Frank did the shooting, but lacking solid evidence he cannot secure a stay of execution. Through it all, Johnny clings to the ruse of playing dumb.

On the day Fred’s execution is set, Frank and Johnny stage a jailbreak. Johnny reaches a breaking point and prepares to confess, producing a written statement that he stole the gun and that Frank did the shooting, leaving it for Pop to find after the breakout. But Frank sees the document and seizes it, intending to kill Johnny once the guards are distracted.

The escape ends in a failed breakout, with Frank and Johnny trapped in a railroad boxcar and surrounded by guards. Frank fires, mortally wounding Johnny, then shoots him to prevent the confession from surfacing. Yet Johnny, though dying, manages to tell the truth, implicating Frank for both murders and finally clearing Fred.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 10:44