Track the Man Down

After robbing the cashier's booth at a London dog track, thieves Rick Lambert, Ken Orwell and Ahmed Jones take a guard hostage and flee. With the police in pursuit, Rick bashes the guard in the head, then throws him out of the fast-moving car. While speeding over a bridge, the car veers over the side, sending its occupants spilling out. Rick grabs the briefcase containing the money as his accomplices scurry away to elude the police. Meanwhile, at the dog track, reporter Don Ford, eager for a story, tags after Inspector Barnet, the officer in charge of investigating the robbery. After one of the guards who witnessed the robbery identifies Rick as one of the thieves, saying that he is a bookie's runner, bookie "Smiling" Sam gives the police Rick's full name and address. On the run, Rick goes to see his girl friend, Mary Dennis, who lives with her sister June. June, who has misgivings about Rick, is disturbed when he arrives and asks Mary to keep a briefcase for him. When the police come to Rick's apartment building to question him, his landlady, Mrs. Greenwood, sends her son Charlie to Mary's apartment to warn Rick. After Charlie delivers the message, Rick abruptly says goodbye to Mary then leaves, narrowly eluding the police. Meanwhile, Austin C. Melford, the mastermind of the gang, meets with Ahmed, who complains that Rick is a dangerous hothead and should be eliminated. When Ken, who is hiding from the police at his apartment, phones Melford, Melford informs him that the guard Rick slugged has died and tells him that they must find Rick before he can implicate them in the guard's murder. When Ken returns to his room from the hallway phone, he finds Rick waiting for him. Rick offers Ken a cut of the money if he will help him get out of the country, and when Ken balks, Rick threatens to turn him in to the police unless he cooperates. Ken takes Rick to see Luis Remino, a pawnbroker who runs a fencing operation. For a fee of £500, Remino agrees to arrange for passage to Portugal and instructs Rick to hide that night at a boathouse near the South Hampton harbor. Rick has only part of Remino's fee, however, so Ken agrees to go with him while he meets Mary and collects the briefcase. Rick then telephones Mary and directs her to bring the briefcase to the Golden Lantern, a pub on the bus route to South Hampton. Before Mary can leave, however, Barnet comes to her apartment and takes her to the police station for questioning. On her way out, Mary leaves a message for June to take the bus and meet her with the briefcase at the Golden Lantern. Don, meanwhile, to his chagrin, has been assigned by his editor, "Wild" Max, to write a story about actress Pat Sherwood, who has just walked out on the play in which she has been performing. Tracking Pat to Victoria Station, Don goes there. June is also at the terminal, and they all board the bus to South Hampton. Intrigued by June, Don takes the seat next to hers. At police headquarters, Mary is defiant until she learns that Rick is wanted for robbery and murder. When the bus stops at the Golden Lantern, Rick is surprised to see June, who has handed the briefcase to Don for safekeeping. Fearing that Mary was planning to elope with Rick, June warns him to stay away from her sister. As June and Rick argue, Ken phones Melford to inform him of their meeting with Remino and notify him that Rick does not have the money. When June tells Don that the man to whom she was speaking is Rick Lambert, Don recognizes Rick's name from the robbery. Cautioning June that she is in danger, Don convinces her to get back on the bus with him. Ken and Rick are about to follow the bus in their stolen car when they notice a motorcycle policeman examining the vehicle and decide to board the bus instead. Thinking that Rick may have given the money to Mary, Melford goes to her apartment. After Mary informs him that June was delivering a briefcase to Rick at the Golden Lantern, Melford goes to see Remino and coerces him into divulging that Rick is hiding at the boathouse. The motorcycle policeman trails the bus, and when he orders it to pull over, Rick slugs the bus driver and commandeers the bus and its passengers. Upon reaching the boathouse, Rick rushes the passengers out of the bus and snatches the briefcase from June. When a baby belonging to a woman passenger falls ill, Pat chides Rick into summoning a doctor. Rick then sends June and Ken to the nearby village to fetch the physician. When the doctor promises to come to the boathouse as soon as he is finished treating an emergency, June, unknown to Ken, writes a message to the police on her mirror and leaves it behind. Soon after June and Ken return to the boathouse, Melford arrives with Ahmed. Spotting the briefcase, Ahmed grabs it and runs, but is shot in the back by Rick. At daybreak, as the police approach the boathouse, Rick starts to flee with the money, and when Melford tries to take the briefcase, Rick shoots him. Don then jumps Rick, allowing the police to apprehend him. While the woman and her baby climb into a waiting ambulance, Pat announces that she has decided to return to the stage and invites June and Don to visit her cottage in South Hampton. Just then, Max, elated by Don's scoop about the apprehension of the robbers, comes to the boathouse to congratulate him and insist that he immediately return to London to begin another story. Don calmly replies that Pat has invited him to her cottage and walks off with June, leaving the exasperated Max behind.