(1952, b/w) The big man recruits three hoodlums for a heist of $1.2 million from an armored car in front of the Southwest Bank in Kansas City. Each man wearing a mask during the robbery is unknown to the other two; they've each been given half a king from a deck of playing cards and enough cash to tide them over in a foreign country until they're to meet for the big payoff when and where instructed. An innocent patsy, driving a delivery truck for a florist, is framed.

Director Phil Karlson's crime drama, with ominous horns throughout the soundtrack, from the golden era of film noir - in a haze of cigarettes, sharp punches, and gun play - was adapted by screenwriters George Bruce and Harry Essex from a story by Harold R. Greene and Rowland Brown.

Caught by the cops, Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a driver for Western Florist, is an ex-con (one year in the pen for a gambling debt) and war vet (bronze star and purple heart); he's given enhanced interrogation before being released ("These things happen," says the chief by way of apology) after a duplicate florist truck is found, but not before his picture appears in the newspapers and he loses his job.

Following a tip from Eddie, a buddy whose life he'd saved at Iwo Jima, Joe pursues Pete Harris (Jack Elam) to Tijuana, Mexico. On the lam from the law for murder before he'd participated in the holdup, Pete attracts the attention of the police as he and Joe are about to catch a plane for a fishing village named Borados. Already there are the two other members of the gang, Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef), a habitual criminal, and gum-chewing Boyd Kane (Neville Brand), a cop killer, waiting for the big man to show up to split the loot.

An American on a fishing vacation, Tim Foster (Preston S. Foster), is a former police captain who'd been forced into retirement. Insurance agent Scott Andrews (Howard Negley) arrives in response to Foster's telegram, promising an enticing opportunity of solving the crime and recovering the missing money. Unexpectedly Foster's daughter Helen (Coleen Gray), a law student preparing for the bar exam, arrives by taxi along with Joe, calling himself Pete Harris.

Helen tells her father that she's managed to get the commission to reopen his case and takes a liking to Joe: "I think you're in trouble, and I'm going to help you." Neither is interested in her interference in his revenge.

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