It all starts with ace pilot Nick (Robert Beatty) crashing his cargo
plane into the sea and obviously dying in the process. Problem is, Nick
was somehow involved in smuggling and counterfeiting Dollar bills, and his
best friend and colleague Richard (Zachary Scott), who is in a
relationship with Nick's sister Avril (Naomi Chance), is the prime suspect
for investigating cop Maxwell (Colin Tapley), who thinks Richard was part
of Nick's racket - which he wasn't. To clear himself of any suspicion,
Richard soon starts investigating on his own, and he soon picks up a lead
that leads to his and Nick's boss Spencer (Arthur Lane). But when he tries
to retrieve vital evidence from Spencer's office, he has a run-in with a
mysterious man on a motorbike who has been trailing him for a while. He
goes after the biker in his car, but has a horrible accident - however,
it's the biker who saves him, and the biker turns out to be none other
than thought-dead Nick, who has faked his own death to get out of the
smuggling and counterfeiting racket that is run be none other than their
boss Spencer. Trying to shut down Spencer's counterfeiting plant, Nick is
shot at but allowed to die a hero, while Richard teams up with cop Maxwell
to go after Spencer - who tries to make a hasty getaway by plane, so hasty
that he by mistake takes one that's in no proper condition, which makes
his escape end in a crash. Nothing special perhaps but a very
solid crime thriller of the film noir variety, brought to the screen with
a sure hand by Terence Fisher, who doesn't show the same inventiveness yet
he did later when directing his Hammer horror classics, but proves
himself as a competent craftsman. No classic maybe, but well worth a
look.
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