It's not often you get effective film noir combined with red scare, Communist propaganda, but this film delivers both in droves. It has shipping company executive Brad Collins (Ribert Ryan) in the unenviable position of having been a Communist Party member in his youth, now being blackmailed to help the commies achieve their goal of calling a union strike and tying up shipments, causing chaos throughout the industry. Recently married to pretty Nan Collins (Laraine Day) following a whirlwind romance, Collins finds a former flame entering his life to further move along the commie plot. Seeing as how party member Christine Norman (Janis Carter) has her work cut out, she also enlists Nan's younger brother in the devious scheme by engaging him in a romance in order to secure his participation. The tension is palpable, especially when Commie bigwig Vanning (Thomas Gomez) shakes down Collins for forty percent of his salary, demonstrating what happens to defectors should they defy him. Just ask the unfortunate guy Ralston (Paul Guilfoyle), who wound up in the harbor without the ability to use his arms and legs. That last remark was rhetorical, you can't really ask him now, can you?
All the while, one suspects that Collins will eventually do the right thing, and he does, but it comes with a price. This is one film in which you root for the film's principal player, but by foiling the Commies, he winds up breathing his last. But not before recommending his new bride reconnect with her former suitor (Richard Rober), which under the circumstances, seemed like a hokey way to end the story.
All the while, one suspects that Collins will eventually do the right thing, and he does, but it comes with a price. This is one film in which you root for the film's principal player, but by foiling the Commies, he winds up breathing his last. But not before recommending his new bride reconnect with her former suitor (Richard Rober), which under the circumstances, seemed like a hokey way to end the story.