Devil's Cargo
Cast & Crew
John F. Link
John Calvert
Rochelle Hudson
Roscoe Karns
Lyle Talbot
Theodore Von Eltz
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Bruce "Lucky" Conroy is murdered, Ramon Delgado, his suspected killer, deposits a package in a locker at a Los Angeles bowling alley, then visits a bank, all the time followed by a hood named Naga. Delgado then goes to the apartment of private detective Michael Waring, also known as "The Falcon." After meeting "Brain Trust," Michael's canine partner, Delgado tells Michael that he committed the murder because Conroy had been seeing his wife Margo and that he intends to give himself up, confident that he will be exonerated. He then hands Michael a key to keep for him and pays him $500. As police lieutenant Hardy interrogates Conroy's business partner, Johnny Morello, about the killing, Michael interrupts him with a phone call summoning police to his apartment to take Delgado into custody. A short time later, Naga sees Delgado leave in the police car and phones his boss. Intrigued by Delgado, Michael decides to visit Margo at her apartment, posing as an insurance adjuster. Margo, however, discovers his ruse and states that she and Conroy were just friends and that her husband is crazy. Just as Hardy is about to book Delgado, lawyer Thomas Mallon shows up wanting to represent Delgado and advises him not to sign a confession. Later, when Margo meets Morello, both think the other was involved in the killing. Mallon tells Michael that he is handling the case without a fee, for publicity and prestige reasons, and asks Michael what Delgado wanted of him. Michael refuses to divulge anything, but suggests to Mallon that Delado may not have committed the crime. Later, while Michael is consulting a locksmith, Naga enters his apartment and demands Delgado's key at gun point. Michael then follows Naga to the bowling alley, where Naga opens the locker, setting off an enormous explosion that kills him and leaves Michael with a concussion. Later, after Michael and Hardy find Delgado dead in his cell, an autopsy determines that he was poisoned. Among Delgado's effects are the key to a bank safety deposit box and a letter from Mallon, delivered on the day of Delgado's death, asking him to sign and return a document. That night, Michael breaks into Mallon's office and finds the document Delgado signed authorizing him to represent him. Surprised by Mallon, Michael tells him that if Delgado had been convicted, he was to have given the locker key to Mallon for whom the bomb had been intended. Later, Michael, Margo, Hardy and a representative from the inheritance tax office meet at the bank to open the safe deposit box in which Margo finds an envelope containing $24,500. Michael then visits Morello and accuses him of paying Delgado to kill Conroy so that he could acquire full ownership of their business. Michael next visits Margo and asks to see her husband's clothes but she has given them to the Salvation Army. In the Army's storeroom, Michael finds a note, concealed in a sole of Delgado's shoes, signed by Mallon and stating that he killed Conroy and hired Delgado to take the blame. When Michael and Margo leave the storeroom, they are followed and Michael asks Margo to phone Hardy to have him meet them at Mallon's office. Michael then accuses Mallon of refusing to pay gambling losses to Conroy, and deduces that his written confession was Delgado's safeguard in case he was not exonerated of the "crime of passion." Delgado had not realized that Mallon intended to kill him, too. Mallon put a chemical poison on the return envelope he sent and when Delgado licked it to seal it, he died. Mallon then draws a gun on Michael and Margo reveals that she was not involved with Conroy, but has been Mallon's partner all along and did not phone Hardy. Michael, however, had taken the precaution of calling Hardy himself and the police arrive. Mallon shoots Margo accidentally and Hardy arrests him. Michael explains that, coincidentally, Mallon and Delgado had been at Conroy's house at the same time and Mallon had found it opportune to pay Delgado to confess to the crime.
Director
John F. Link
Cast
John Calvert
Rochelle Hudson
Roscoe Karns
Lyle Talbot
Theodore Von Eltz
Michael Mark
Tom Kennedy
Paul Marion
Paul Regan
Eula Guy
Christine Larson
Walter Soderling
John Bagni
"brain Trust"
Jack Conrad
Peggy Wynne
Peter Michael
Carol Janis
Fred Coby
Dick Rush
Crew
Asa Boyd Clark
George Clemens
Paul Dessau
James Doolittle
Mary Gibsone
Glen Glenn
Jason James
Philip N. Krasne
Dick L'estrange
Ted Larsen
Don Martin
Gale Mcgarry
Ray Mercer
Fred Russell
Walter Strenge
Robert Tallman
Tommy Thompson
Donald S. Wakeling
Mack Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film's working title was The Unwritten Law and was magician John Calvert's first film as "The Falcon." In a sequence missing from the print viewed, but included in the film's cutting continuity, as "Delgado" and "Michael" await the arrival of the police in "Michael's" apartment, "Delgado" notices a photograph of magician John Calvert whom "Michael" describes as "not so hot" and then proceeds to show "Delgado" magic tricks, including the production of a bowl of goldfish and a duck. For additional information on the series, please consult the Series Index and see the entry below for The Gay Falcon.
