In Miami Beach, when a confidence racket run by Silky Randall (Dan Duryea) and smooth con-artist Rick Maxon (John Payne) goes awry, Randall plans another scheme in Mission City, California, near Pasadena. Randall proposes to bilk wealthy war widow Deborah Owens Clark (Joan Caulfield) by playing on her strong sentiment for her dead war-hero husband Jim.

Randall suspects that Rick is romancing his girl friend Tory (Shelley Winters) on the sly, but when confronted, Rick is evasive, even after Randall reveals that he intends to send Tory to Cuba for the duration of their next job. Rick finds Tory waiting at his apartment and she demands that he accompany her to Cuba, but he refuses and leaves for Los Angeles.

Upon his arrival, Rick checks into a boardinghouse and lets the manager know he is a friend of local hero, Jim Clark. The manager, who runs a patriotic youth organization, asks Rick to speak at the club's meeting that night and Rick agrees. At the meeting, Rick is introduced to Deborah, who admits to being moved by his talk. Pretending to have known Jim, Rick plants the idea of erecting a war memorial youth building in his honor and Deborah immediately agrees.

Back in his room that night, Rick is visited by Randall's henchman, Max (Richard Rober), who informs him that Tory is missing, having evaded her Cuba flight, and that Randall suspects she is with Rick. After Max departs, Rick goes to Tory's cottage and is cool to her romantic overtures, she threatens to expose him to Randall, but promises to stay hidden if Rick visits her regularly. Max is waiting for Rick in his room and takes him to Randall, who informs him that he must push Deborah to choose the most expensive site possible for the war memorial. He again questions Rick about Tory and Rick denies knowing her whereabouts.

Rick takes Deborah to a party, where he gets her to agree to the top building site, valued at $100,000. Deborah declares she will pay for the entire project. Rick assures her that he will make the arrangements and convinces her to write him a personal check. He then goes to see Tory, who turns on him, demanding that he marry her or she will reveal the truth to Deborah, whom she has invited to the cottage. When Deborah arrives, Tory threatens her and Rick with a gun, and during the ensuing brief struggle, Deborah is knocked out. Rick goes along with Tory, but when they embrace he turns the gun on her and kills her. Randall and Max burst in, but unknown to them, Rick has called the police. He stalls Randall by claiming that they can set Deborah up for Tory's killing. When the police arrive, Randall pretends to be a detective, but as Deborah regains consciousness, Rick confesses to the entire set-up. As the police take him away, Rick tells Deborah to forget she ever met him.

A 1948 American film-noir crime film directed by George Sherman, produced by Leonard Goldstein, screenplay by William Bowers, Louis Morheim and Herbert H. Margolis, based on the novel "The Velvet Fleece" (1947) by John Fleming and Lois Eby, cinematography by Irving Glassberg, starring John Payne, Joan Caulfield, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters, Dorothy Hart, Richard Rober, Dan O'Herlihy, Nicholas Joy, Percy Helton, Walter Greaza, Patricia Alphin, Harry Antrim, Russ Conway, and Don Wilson. Screen debut appearance of Paul Brinegar.

This was John Payne's first foray into film-noir, making a smart move to the newborn noir cycle. Like Dick Powell, Payne was another crooner and hoofer from 1930s musicals. A light leading man who saw new opportunities waiting in the changing Hollywood of the late 1940s and seized them. Eschewing also-ran roles in prestige pictures ("The Razor's Edge", "Miracle on 34th Street"), he found he was better off taking top billing in the grittier B-Movies of the newborn noir cycle. It was a smart move. With rugged good looks but no glamour boy, a strong, silent type who didn't make it a gimmick, he turned into a plausible and appealing Average Joe. In the half-dozen or so noirs he starred in, he straddled both sides of the law, usually finding himself stranded in a no-man's land in the middle.

Dan Duryea and Shelley Winters appeared together in two other films, "Johnny Stool Pigeon" (1949) and "Winchester '73" (1950).

Director George Sherman was veteran helmsman, and producer of low-budget Western films. Born in New York City in 1908, at age 14 he sailed aboard the SS Mongolia to Los Angeles, California, where he found work in the mail room at Warner Bros., and worked in props on "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1928). His credits rival in number those of anyone in the entertainment industry.

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on October 11, 1948 with John Payne and Joan Caulfield reprising their film roles.

An excellent, engaging, well written, rather unseen film-noir B-Movie gem. It's taut as a garrote, and there are twists you won't see coming. Do not miss this one, it's one of the best noirs out there.