Gamblers who "took" an out-of-town sucker in a crooked poker game feel shadowy vengeance closing in on them.
Danny Haley's bookie operation is shut down, so he and his pals need money; when Danny meets Arthur Winant, a sucker from out of town, he decoys him into a series of poker games where eventually Winant loses $5000 that isn't his. But it seems Winant had a shadowy, protective elder brother who believes in personal revenge. And each of the card players in turn feels a faceless doom inexorably closing in. Dark streets and sexy torch-singer Fran lend ambience.—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>
War vet Danny Haley operates an illegal gambling joint with Augie and Barney, with slight-framed ex-boxer Soldier, who Augie believes has taken too many hits to the head in their animosity, their clean-up man. Danny is dating nightclub singer Fran Garland, who would like their relationship to be more committed than Danny is willing in he having been burned before in marriage. The joint has just been raided yet again despite they paying protection money. This latest raid, which makes Danny ponder getting out of the racket, easier to do if he had the money, brings the three into the sights of the new Vice squad captain, Garvey. Danny, Augie and Barney don't really like each other unless it is in the pursuit of money. It is in such a scheme that they lure out-of-towner Angeleno Arthur Winant into the temporarily shut-down joint, and hustle him in a crooked poker game in knowing that he is carrying a $5,000 cashier's check which was supposed to be used to purchase equipment for the health club for which he works. In the scam against Arthur not going quite according to plan, Danny, Augie and especially Barney begin to believe that someone in Arthur's life, about which they know nothing beyond what little Arthur told them, is out to kill them, they turning from the hunter to the hunted, that is unless they can figure out a way to turn the tables on whoever is after them. In the process of trying to lure that person out into the open, Danny gets a taste of a happy, straight life, something to which he may aspire if he lives that long.—Huggo
An underground gambling joint managed by Danny Haley (Charlton Heston) is closed down by a police raid led by wise cop Capt. Garvey (Dean Jagger) and Danny finds solace with girlfriend Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott) who works as a night-club torch song singer. Danny is comfortable with Fran but still carries wounds from a former marriage and feels pressured to commit when he doesnt have a stable income. Danny meets former American soldier Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) while visiting Fran at her nightly club performance and Winant tags along with Danny to a late-night poker game. Playing cards with Dannys cohorts ulcerous Barney (Ed Begley, Sr.) and nasty-mouthed Augie (Jack Webb) isnt something Danny enjoys and when the crooked card players rook sucker Winant of five-thousand dollars that he was holding for his company theres a certain satisfaction that theyve made some money. When Winant is discovered the next morning hanged from the chandelier in his hotel room, the news lists it as suicide but Capt. Garvey believes something else is at play and questions Danny about it. When Barney is killed and hanged a general search goes out for the dead Arthur Winants reportedly crazy brother Sidney whom it is believed is tracking down all those responsible and exacting revenge for his brothers losing his money.
