Barry Sullivan stars as a bank teller named Mike Donovan whose life is turned upside down after he discovers that his till is short by $49,990 on a Friday afternoon after a bank audit.
Donovan is arrested and questioned by the police and an insurance agent named Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw). Donovan goes thru every type of questioning and finally the police decide he is probably innocent, but Gus has other ideas.
Donovan is fired from the bank and several other jobs thanks to Gus. Donovan and his wife Ruthie (Dorothy Malone) are forced to move to a much cheaper apartment and tighten their finances.
Mike finally lands a steady job with a cab company run by Pete Mazurki (Richard Reeves) who refuses to listen to Gus. Mike takes it upon himself to find the real thief. After much leg work Mike spots the culprit. His name is Herman Tate (Don Beddoe).
This puts Mike and Herman in a dangerous cat and mouse game with the money. Tate has a woman with him named Vera (Mary Beth Hughes). Vera is nothing but a cold blooded snake who will do anything to keep the money and Tate under her thumb.
This is one of the few film noir that actually ends on an upbeat note. I have to say that Sullivan usually carries the movies he is in, but in this case he is overshadowed by both McGraw as the brutal Gus and Hughes as the femme fatal Vera. She is as evil as any woman seen in films like these.
Any fan of the genre should see this. The rest of the cast includes Dayton Lummis, Joanne Jordan, Don Harvey and John Eldridge. RECOMMENDED!!
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