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Warner Bros' Road Gang is a retread of themes first explored (and stock footage first seen) in the studio's earlier I Am Fugitive From a Chain Gang. The story takes place in an unnamed Southern state, where prisoners are forced to work on chain gangs under appallingly brutal conditions. The local newspapermen try to expose this shameful situation to the world, but are prevented from doing so by fat-cat corrupt politicians who are benefitting financially from the enforced-labor policy. It takes the intervention of a crusading Chicago journalist (Henry O'Neill) to start the wheels of justice in motion. Most of the story is told through the eyes of hapless prison laborers Jim Larrabee (Donald Woods) and Bob Gordon (Carlyle Moore Jr.), only one of whom survives until the fade-out. Road Gang was scripted by future blacklistee Dalton Trumbo.