Penned up in the pen, fall guy for a botched heist, Joe (Dennis O'Keefe) springs himself with the aid of his moll, Claire Trevor, and takes off on a raw-edged journey to revenge with demented Raymond Burr waiting at the dim terminus. Along the way, Joe takes his social worker (Marsha Hunt) hostage and she becomes the film's fall girl as she falls for the guy. Guided by Trevor's baleful, boozed-up voice-over, Raw Deal rakes emotion from the underbrush of existence. No verdant place this, but a fallow ‘scape bathed in cinematographer Alton's murky light. This is where love comes to die.