"Dixon" (Dana Andrews) is an hard-nosed cop who likes to play by his own rules. Needless to say that puts him at odds with his superiors and ultimately leads to his demotion just as his contemporary "Thomas" (Karl Malden) is made lieutenant. Whilst all this disarray is distracting the police, criminal mastermind "Scalise" (Gary Merrill) is out to fleece wealthy sucker "Morrison" at a dice game but things at the game get a bit fraught and soon they have that man's body to contend with. "Dixon" likes to investigate with his fists and that leads him to a tragedy of his own, with even more complications as he is gradually falling in love with "Morgan" (Gene Tierney) who just happens to be a widow intricately connected with our story. We know who the culprits are, and we know who did what to whom - what helps this to work well is the way we are invited by Otto Preminger to take a perspective watching how the characters all deduce and find out. It's a violent story in a violent city and in the end you begin to wonder if the end does/did justify the means as the cat and mouse game nears it's lively finale. None of the actors here really stand out, but I think that works better at creating a genuine sense of teamwork (amongst the cops and the gang) and the dialogue is sparing enough to let the frequent action do most of the heavy lifting. It's got a grittiness to it that I felt added authenticity to this story of petty criminality and ruthlessness and I did enjoy watching it.
