Green and starring Douglas Kennedy[2] as a newspaper reporter who goes undercover to expose political corruption and the exploitation of chain-gang labor.

Equipped with false employment records and a tiny microfilm camera disguised as a cigarette lighter, he tells everyone, including his girlfriend Rita McKelvey, a reporter for a rival newspaper,[5] that he is going on a fishing trip, but actually heads for Cloverdale Prison Farm in the Deep South, where recent incidents have left three inmates dead.

Roberts secretly witnesses and photographs prison conditions, including the capture of an escaped inmate who is punished with an overnight stay in the sweatbox.

[7] They try to outrun the guards and their dogs across wilderness, but Roberts is shot and left for dead by Captain Duncan,[8] who later pins the blame on Snead.

Chain Gang was praised for its acting, direction, action sequences and technical qualities, but Green's improbable storyline and dialogue received criticism.