The jewel thief Lefranc and hoodlum Maurice, Greeneyes' cellmates, are imprisoned for less serious crimes but must align themselves with more brutal inmates for their survival in prison.

[2][3] The three actors Leonard Nimoy, Paul Mazursky, and Michael Forest had already staged a version of the play in 1959.

He said his dream cast would include Cornel Wilde, Dan Duryea, and George Hamilton.

[4] The New York Times printed that Vic Morrow and Leonard Nimoy had acquired the movie rights to the play in the issue published November 27, 1962.

[7] Part of Deathwatch was shot in the nineteenth-century Nevada State Prison, where the actors lived for six months to prepare for their roles.

One of the first films to be directly marketed to a gay audience, Deathwatch was quickly buried in the States and never released in the UK.

[6] In a review years later, a reviewer for the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote that in "the feature, adapted from a Genet play, which has been unjustly forgotten for 23 years, Vic Morrow's direction captures a consistent, if not very interesting, mood and the editing seems ahead of its time in the way flashbacks are inserted.

Leonard Nimoy and Michael Forest are the butch guys sharing a cell with Nellie Paul Mazursky in this unromantic triangle that's hard to tear your eyes away from, even if it's not very good.