...It has more plot holes than a piece of Swiss cheese.
The film opens on a bank robbery and a shoot out between the robbers and bank guards. The gang took three hundred thousand dollars whose serial numbers were not listed, so there is no way to trace the stolen money.
The gang has thought of everything - they switch cars, hide the loot in an unusual place on the new car, and take off. But the bank president mentions something unusual about one of the robbers - he has polished well manicured nails - and this gets them caught in the road block, causes them to shoot it out with the police, and the car crashes down a ravine killing all inside. So the entire Jarvis gang is dead, and where the money is dies with them. Enter detective Tom Dwyer (Don Red Barry) who offers to find the loot for the 10% reward.
Now Barry makes an interesting crime picture protagonist. He looks somewhat like a cross between Chester Morris and Don Rickles, if you can conceive of such a thing, doing his best James Cagney while smiling like the Joker. He comes across a carnival museum making a show out of the Jarvis getaway car, there are always two hoods hanging around, a dead man shows up in a rollercoaster who wasn't there when the ride started, and then there is Detour's Ann Savage who belts a few tunes at the local club.
There are people being shadowed, an attempt to gun down Barry on the streets, and two attempts to run over Ann Savage with a car, and this is the first time I've ever seen a private investigator with a welding certificate before. Maybe he learned it during the war?
Not to spoil anything for you, but the entire heist and who winds up being responsible for various crimes and the twists and turns in the plot that are revealed are convoluted and at worst just incoherent. But it keeps moving, has great dialogue and atmosphere, and it keeps you guessing because who would ever determine the crazy actual denouement?
This rare crime film from 1940s Republic Pictures is worth your time. Just don't think too hard.
