Mild-mannered aeronautical engineer Walt Sherill (Alan Ladd) is brutally attacked and injured by a gang of well-dressed teenage thugs but is unable to supply sufficient information to enable the patient Sergeant Koleski (Rod Steiger) to track them down.
Obsessed with the idea of revenge, Sherill decides to hunt for the gang himself.
At first, his efforts are amateur and clumsy but then he starts to think – and takes lessons with a revolver. Meanwhile, his wife, Tracey (Dolores Dorn) sees her marriage eaten away by her husband’s corrosive bitterness.
There are several deaths before Sherill catches up with the psychotic youngster who sparked the attack. Chuck Landry (Michael Callan) is the crazed youth who leads other attacks against the beaten man and his family.
This was the penultimate film (and last leading role) for Alan Ladd before his death in 1964, aged 50.
Walt Sherill
Alan Ladd Detective Sergeant Pete Koleski
Rod Steiger Tracey Sherill
Dolores Dorn Chuck Landry
Michael Callan Paul Logan
Kenneth MacKenna Mrs Madeleine Landry
Margaret Hayes Finney
Stanley Adams Everett Bush
Chris Robinson Mrs Quinn
Jeanne Cooper Bill Quinn
Arnold Merritt Tommy
Mark Slade Joe Bradford
Henry Beckman Noddy
Clegg Hoyt Jack
Adam Roarke (as Jordan Gerler) Doctor
Robert Cleaves Negro
Bernie Hamilton Mexican
Pepe Hern Mr Johnson
Frank Gerstle Baldwin
Ted Knight
