The first film in de Fuentes' trilogy on the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1917. Told in flashback, the story deals with a tragic incident from the Revolution, involving a corrupt Army Colonel who is ordered to execute a prisoner who turns out to be his own son. According to critic Federico Serrano: “as opposed to most of the Mexican or foreign directors who have dealt with this theme, from Emilio Fernandez to Elia Kazan, de Fuentes does not give his films an epic or grandiloquent air. In his work, the Revolution is a social phenomenon which is translated into internal movements. Prisoner Number 13 does not deal with the Revolution directly. Instead, de Fuentes uses it as a background for a moralistic tale. The film shows more of the able and inspired craftsman than the intelligent and ironic observer who will later emerge.”