CinemaSerf

Nelson" (Richard Basehart" is half way through a thirty year prison stretch when he is released on parole. Determined never to go back behind bars, he capitalises on his time at the prison hospital and finds a job at a sanatorium. His eye wanders to the rather venal nurse "Ann" (Dorothy Hart) but there's not really any way he can afford to indulge her. Until, that is, he discovers a patient in the place that he knows of old. 'Jack" (John Hoyt) is another criminal, suffering from TB, who was reputedly mixed up in a million dollar security heist a long time ago. In return for a bit of help with his estranged wife, he is prepared to pay "Nelson" handsomely. That wife "Celia" (Signe Hasso) has grand designs on this cash, and with a gang of unsavoury types led by "Garth" (Henry Morgan) decides to get the loot at all costs. Suddenly, "Nelson" finds his life in danger and he has to think nimbly on his feet if he is to stay alive, at liberty - and hopefully find the cash too. Basehart never was the most charismatic of actors but he does enough here to keep this thriller on it's toes as we build to a quirky denouement that raises the dead for a double-cross (or, maybe not). Standard afternoon fayre, this, but watchable.