AllMovie

Who'd have thought that hardcase Combat star Vic Morrow would choose a Jean Genet play as his directorial debut? Deathwatch is set in a dank prison cell, where three inmates while away their time jockeying for power. Leonard Nimoy (who also produced) plays a condemned murderer, the unofficial leader of the group, while Paul Mazursky and Michael Forest portray the other prisoners, one of them homosexual. The film looks like the photographed stage play that it is, but the intensity of the cast and direction makes up for any cinematic shortcomings. Featured in the cast on the "outside" are Gavin McLeod and Robert Ellenstein. Morrow adapted Deathwatch for the screen in collaboration with his then-wife Barbara Turner.