This film is based on a novel written by David Lamson. In 1933, Lamsom was tried and found guilty of murdering his wife. He was sentenced to death, and imprisoned in San Quentin, pending execution. Lamsom always protested his innocence, and believed his wife died accidentally, not at the hand of another person. He was freed after an appeal and two re-trials. He started writing the novel while he was in prison and completed it after his release.
We Who Are About to Die (1936) is a American crime drama film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Preston Foster, Ann Dvorak, and John Beal. It was based on "We Who Are About to Die" by David Lamson (New York, 1936), a book by David Lamson, who was tried four times for murdering his wife before being set free.
What survived from the original was the unstinting picture of prison life, with cinematographer Robert H. Planck pouring on the atmosphere years before he took a more glamorous turn filming such MGM musicals as Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Royal Wedding (1951).
David Lamson, on whose book this film is based, served 13 months in San Quentin Penitentiary before the Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction, according to New York Times. According to Hollywood Reporter, Lamson, who was accused of murdering his wife, endured three trials before being declared innocent.