A tough 50s crime melodrama in which the lines between cops and robbers, good guys and bad, are anything but distinct. Fred MacMurray leads a gang of cops assigned to track down a fugitive bank thief via the thief's mistress (Kim Novak), whom they stalk with tape recorder and binoculars. MacMurray, lured by the money and the mistress, does away with the thief, but not in the name of duty. Starting out deceptively slow, the film rises to a high-pitched tension.