A mild mannered bank clerk (Wendell Corey) with psychological problems is the inside man in the hold up of his bank. When the police attempt to arrest him, the bank clerk's wife (Martha Crawford) is accidentally killed. While in prison, he plots an eye for an eye revenge against the policeman (Joseph Cotten) who shot his wife by plotting to kill the cop's wife (Rhonda Fleming). When he escapes from a prison farm by killing a guard, the clock is ticking as he gets closer and closer to his intended target. This pulpy potboiler is directed by the great Budd Boetticher who directed some genuinely great westerns. But while the direction is taut, Boetticher can't do anything with the weak screenplay. The police in this movie have got to be one of the most incompetent police departments I've seen in films. Corey does very well with the psychotic killer on the loose but he comes across as too dim witted to be able to outwit the police. It's a pity because the film had the potential to be a terrific "B" sleeper rather than an erratically entertaining piece of pulp. With Alan Hale Jr., Michael Pate, John Larch, Lawrence Dobkin and Virginia Christine.
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