Career criminal Paul Perry (Edd Byrnes) has earned a measure of fame for his daring escapes from various jails and prisons. But it looks like Perry's luck has run out when he sentenced to serve a 15-year sentence in a maximum-security prison farm, where head guard Captain Tollman (
Stephen McNally) is determined to keep Perry behind bars for keeps. Undaunted, Perry hatches a "foolproof" escape plan with an unlikely accomplice: an old "lifer" named Doc (
Robert Keith), who works in the prison infirmary...and also prepares the coffin whenever an inmate dies. This literally claustrophobic episode was written by John Resko, a former death-row inmate who managed to parlay his last-minute reprieve into a lengthy literary career upon his release from Sing Sing in 1949. "Final Escape" was remade as an episode for the 1985 revival of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents -- with actress
Season Hubley in the Edd Byrnes role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide