Directed by Cy Endfield • 1950 • United States
Starring Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson

Inspired by the highly publicized 1933 murder of department store heir Brooke Hart (also the basis for Fritz Lang’s FURY), this noir from blacklisted director Cy Endfield follows desperate, unemployed family man Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) as he falls under the influence of small-time hood Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges), who ropes him into a high-stakes kidnapping plot. When the crime unravels and ends in murder, Tyler finds himself facing the wrath of both the law and a local journalist (Richard Carlson) who uses his pen to stir public opinion into a bloodthirsty frenzy.