Fay Forrester and her violent boyfriend Vince Miller steals a million dollars belonging to the mafia. Miller wants to keep all the money to himself, after which Forrester flees with the money. She assigns the dodgy private investigatorJack Andrews with the arrangement of her death. Forrester tells the detective that she is fleeing her ex-husband, who she claims has abused her. Andrews agrees, though he notices she is lying. The private detective, a widower, is accordingly suspected by the police of the murder. The femme fatale, who likes to hang around in the casino, keeps burning him. Miller and the mafia are also interested in him. He has an affair with Forrester, who proposes to stage death again - this time for both lovers. Andrews is allegedly on the way to Maine, where his wife drowned in a traffic accident. Andrews is to hide the money near the place where not far from the shore a fabricated boat accident supposedly happened. Meanwhile, Miller tortures a friend of Andrews and learns about Andrew's whereabouts in Nevada. Fay convinces herself to kill Miller. But once Miller appears, he reconciles with Fay and forces Andrews to hand over the case with the money. Andrews then flees by jumping into the water, whereby Miller and Fay shoots him and hurt him severely. The accomplices flee in front of the police and notice on the way that in the suitcase is not money, but waste paper, before they ram a tank container that explodes, killing them. In the end Andrews is seen traveling with the money.
The film drew a mixed reception. Variety gave it a mostly positive review, stating: "The tale of a down-and-out detective and a seamy femme fatale is a thoroughly professional little entertainment. Time Out gave it a mostly negative review, complaining: "Derived from assorted Hitchcocks and noir classics, the tortuous storyline of writer-director Dahl's determinedly sordid thriller has its moments," but was critical of the three lead actors and concludes: "Setting its study of betrayal and deceit in and around the gambling towns of the Nevada desert, the film sporadically achieves a truly seedy atmosphere, but there are too many symbols, too many loose ends, and too many vaguely sensationalist scenes.
Box office
The film was a failure at the box office, but it later achieved some success on home video.
