Plot SynopsisThe film opens with a pan down to a street curb/gutter in Hollywood with dead leaves.The curb is stenciled with SUNSET BLVD.- the image is an appropriate metaphor for the tawdry exposé to follow.The camera pulls back across the cracked, defaced asphalt with superimposed credits - also stenciled." (Lyrics: "Whenever I feel afraid I hold my head erect And whistle a happy tune So no one will suspect I'm afraid While shivering in my shoes I strike a careless pose And whistle a happy tune And no one ever knows I'm afraid")...and awoke America's conscience!"A few other prison films had already been released before this short, 90 minute film: the classicThe Big House (1930)about brutish prison conditions, Howard Hawks'Criminal Code (1931),Ladies of the Big House (1931), and director Rowland Brown'sHell's Highway (1932)(the first of the hard-hitting chain-gang films - deliberately released by RKO's producer David Selznick a few months earlier).They have their first conversation after he pursues her - it is a fateful meeting:Marguerite: Are you following me?Armand: Yes, you, well you did smile at me a moment ago, didn't you?Marguerite: Well, you tell me first whether you smiled at me or at my friend [Olympe].