my pursuit of the best in noir continue with this classic from the height of the era and newly release in a beautiful dvd . start out with plenty of action and suspense a mr. big ( preston foster ) hire four ex con to help him in a big bank heist and while put the frame up on another ex con and a deliveryman for the florist down the block from the bank . foster and his crew dress in mask in fact and none of them except foster know what any of the others look like and drive a truck make up to look just like the florist van and then split up and agree to meet at a to be specify late date and split up the loot . herein lie one of a few major flaw in the plot ( why would any of the hood believe mr. big and just accept that he get his share later and when none of them even know who mr. big be or what he look like . ) but the film be tell with such fluid pace and style that one can forgive the hole . the twist that be the most interesting be that the floral delivery guy ( john payne ) actually become the hero of the film a he become an amateur sleuth and hunt down the men who frame him and eventually wind up in a mexican resort with the group and pretending to be one of them after witness the hood come to an unlucky end at the hand of mexican police . for the most part this be a sunnier and funny than usual noir and particularly light in tone when the action go south of the border and and some of this be probably due to the simpler charm of payne no bogart or mitchum though effective enough but also the screenplay which keep the hood and pretend hood switch gun and one upping each other often enough that it become more than a little comic . and the end be fantastically blunt and dark on top of it all . one of the best noirs i have see in a year of see many fine one .