Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who planted the dynamite? Lee Marvin
A:
Homicide detective Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest cop who investigates the death of fellow officer Tom Duncan. It would seem to be an open-and-shut case, suicide brought on by depression, but Bannion is then contacted by the late cop's mistress, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), who claims that it could not have been suicide.She explains that Duncan was in perfect health and had no reason to do it. All the evidence points to a self-inflicted gunshot wound and Bannion is prepared to believe that Chapman is just talking tales as a means of making a little money. But he is intrigued to learn that the Duncans had a second home which would simply not have been possible on his salary.Bannion visits Mrs Duncan (Jeanette Nolan) and raises the subject but she resents the implication of his suspicions. The next day Bannion gets a dressing-down by Lieutenant Ted Wilks (Willis Bouchey) who is under pressure from "upstairs" to close the case with as little grief to the widow as possible.Chapman is later found dead after being tortured and covered with cigarette burns. After counting "every single one of them" Bannion sets about investigating her murder even though it is not his case or his jurisdiction. Threatening calls are then made to his home and he goes to confront Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), the local mob boss. It's an open secret that Lagana runs the city, even to the point that he has cops guarding his house while his daughter hosts a party. Lagana resents Bannion's accusations in his own home during such an event: "I've seen some dummies in my time, but you're in a class by yourself."Bannion's main problem is that people are just too scared to stand up to the crime syndicate that controls the city, including Lieutenant Wilks, who fears for his pension and whom Bannion dismisses as a "leaning tower of jelly". But, when the warnings to him go unheeded, Bannion's car is blown up and his wife (Jocelyn Brando) is killed.Feeling that the department will do little to bring the perpetrators to justice...