Police captain Peterson (Robert Middleton) storms into the office of police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde), critical of Diamond's spending exorbitant amounts of the city budget and his own personal money in an attempt to arrest a crime boss, Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Peterson says it is a waste of time trying to find something incriminating to bring Mr. Brown to justice because his crime combo does business without accounting books, and furthermore Peterson says Diamond's actual motivation is Diamond's love for Brown's girlfriend Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace). Susan is attended to at all times by Brown's thugs Mingo (Earl Holliman) and Fante (Lee Van Cleef). Seemingly drawn to Brown through his ability to inflict pain, she seems kidnapped and yet willingly waits for Brown's brutal attentions. Attempting suicide, she overdoses on pills, and utters the name "Alicia" as Diamond attends to her in the hospital. Believing this may be Brown's wife, Diamond follows up on this new lead, but Brown captures and tortures Diamond and delivers him back to his boss Peterson, attempting to make Diamond appear drunk. Meanwhile, Joe McClure (Brian Donlevy), a deaf underling of Brown's, tries to overthrow him by enlisting Mingo and Fante to kill him, but they in turn stick with Mr. Brown and kill McClure instead. Diamond makes more headway by locating a former girlfriend of Brown's and Bettini (Ted De Corsia), the former First Mate of Brown's boat. When Brown tries to further kill off his hired thugs and escape, Diamond confronts him again, with new evidence to arrest him.
Who are Mr. Brown's underlings?
Mingo and Fante