Realistic drama and fast-paced direction characterize this fine example of the 1950s semidocumentary-style exposé, based on a real incident--the murder of the would-be Attorney General of Alabama, Albert Patterson, by the small-town vice syndicate he had vowed to bust. The story follows the victim's lawyer son (Richard Kiley) back to Phenix City, where he sets about exposing the elected officials, policemen and jaded townspeople involved in a wide ring of prostitution, gambling and vicious murders. A prologue has reporter Clete Roberts interviewing citizens of Phenix City, by then famous as "the wickedest city in the U.S."