Tenth Avenue Kid

After Marty Dayton's gang robs $200,000 from a bank truck, police detective Jim "Silk" Loomis is put on the case, despite the publicity he has been receiving about his dapper appearance thanks to reporter Susan Holland's newspaper stories. Jim uses his informers Jerry Simons and Phil Wacker to locate Joe Turner, who handles the gang's money, and Jim goes to Turner's house. Turner gives his eleven-year-old son Tommy, who participated in the holdup, the claim check for the locker in which the loot is hidden, after which he is killed in a shootout with Jim. Jim takes the grieving Tommy to the police station, where his attempt to get Tommy to divulge the gang members' names by starving him draws condemnation from Susan. Jim is forced to take Tommy to a juvenile detention facility, but he soon gets him back by arranging to adopt him for ten days. While Dayton and his henchmen Wheeler and Hobart are watching Jim's house for an opportunity to snatch Tommy, the youngster gradually warms to Jim, Jim's roommate, Max Hooker, and Susan, who keeps a motherly eye on Tommy as she and Jim become enamored of each other. A week passes, and still Tommy refuses to squeal on his father's companions. One day, he watches Jim foil a robbery and gains more respect for the tough detective. That night, Jim is told by the commissioner that Tommy must be returned to the juvenile authorities the next day, and Jim asks if he can adopt Tommy for real if he cracks the case. After receiving the commissioner's permission, Jim returns home, where Tommy is admiring the new bike Jim bought for him. Tommy writes an anonymous note to Jim, telling him where the stolen money is hidden, but before the boy can give it to him, the pair squabble when Jim tells him he will have to return to reform school if he does not cooperate. Mistakenly assuming that Jim has merely been using him and does not care for him, Tommy runs away and is found by Dayton. The next day, Tommy is dismayed to read Susan's story vilifying Jim for his treatment of the boy, but he nonetheless helps Dayton retrieve the claim check from Jim's house. At the house, Tommy learns from Max that Jim was fired because of the case and let Susan print the story in the hope that Tommy would return to tell the truth. Just then, Dayton enters and shoots Max, after which he drags the stunned Tommy away. Max calls Susan before he collapses, and while she is rushing to help, Dayton takes Tommy to the train station to get the money. Tommy surreptitiously tells the claim check clerk who Dayton is and the location of their hideout, and the clerk notifies Jim. At the hideout, Dayton kills Hobart when he refuses to shoot Tommy, and Dayton is about to kill Tommy himself when Jim comes to the rescue. The cop and the gangster battle it out, and after Jim trounces Dayton, the gangster is taken away. Max recovers from his injury, and Susan finally wins Jim's heart. Soon the trio visit Tommy at military school, where he proudly displays his commission as a lieutenant, and Jim responds by showing his new lieutenant detective badge.