In the border town of San Pablo, preparing for an annual 'Mexican Fiesta,' arrives Gagin (Robert Montgomery): tough, mysterious and laconic. His mission: to find the equally mysterious Frank Hugo (Fred Clark), evidently for revenge; or is it blackmail?
This film gets credit for being a film noir set not in a big city or in some dark alley, but in a smaller southwestern town. And yet, despite the setting, it is firmly in the film noir genre and not in the western genre. Quite impressive.
The story itself is pretty simple, but the characters are what make it great. Gagin is awesome, as is Hugo, but it is the FBI agent who makes it complete: cat versus mouse, or is it? Throw in the local peasant girl, and you have a well-rounded cast of characters.
This film gets credit for being a film noir set not in a big city or in some dark alley, but in a smaller southwestern town. And yet, despite the setting, it is firmly in the film noir genre and not in the western genre. Quite impressive.
The story itself is pretty simple, but the characters are what make it great. Gagin is awesome, as is Hugo, but it is the FBI agent who makes it complete: cat versus mouse, or is it? Throw in the local peasant girl, and you have a well-rounded cast of characters.