Sure, this is a true story, but writer/director Millard Kaufman (who penned BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) turns it into B-movie pabulum, right down to a groan-inducing finale. The actors try hard, but it’s a lifeless gig. In fact, the only humor comes from the always-reliable Timothy Carey in an all-too-brief role as inmate Nick Pukalski – talking through clenched teeth and with his eyeballs spinning, he steals every scene as a pal from Resko’s old neighborhood. Location scenes were filed at Folsom Prison, but that’s the closest this ever gets to hard-hitting realism.

– Steve Puchalski, review of Convicts 4 (1962), Shock Cinema magazine #19 (Fall/Winter 2001)