John Berkes

Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a driven and talented news reporter whose short temper and contempt for authority has gotten him fired from many of Americas best newspapers. Tatum finds himself broken down in Albuquerque and appeals to the local news paper editor Jacob Q. Boot (Porter Hall) for a job until he can scrape up enough money to get back to New York, or Chicago or some other big newspaper. Boot hires him but after a year Tatum roams around the newspaper office ranting over the lack of any news in the town. Boot sends him and photographer Herbie Cook (Robert Arthur) to Los Brios to cover the annual rattlesnake roundup, but on the way, Tatum happens upon a real human interest story. Local merchant Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) is caught in a cave in an old tunnel inside an ancient Indian burial location. The local Indians and Leo himself say Indian spirits may have caused the cave in because Leo has been raiding the mine for old religious relics. Tatum writes up the story with great hooks angling in the superstitious Indian lore, and focusing on Leo's wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) as a faithful wife even though she wants to leave Leo. Tatum's story gets picked up by the news services, and to insure that he keeps the rights, Tatum makes a deal with the local crooked sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) for help in isolating the location where Leo is. When Tatum learns that the rescuers can get Leo out in about 12 hours by shoring up the inside of the mine, he convinces the rescue crew to drill in from above instead, a job that will take 6 days and will give Tatum enough time to whip the story into a real career-changing event. As Lorraine agrees to allow people to come into to see the event for a price, she sees the profits at the diner increase greatly and a big-time newspaper editor from New York agrees to pay Tatum a huge amount for the story and give him his old job back. Leo begins to become ill as time passes and his health decides the futures of those making a profit from his demise.

A gunfighter takes part in a scheme to bilk a wealthy cattle family out of half a million dollars by pretending to be their son, who was kidnapped as child. Twenty-five years ago the Lavery baby was kidnapped. Bad guy Leffingwell gets Choya to impersonate the son to gain the Lavery estate. When he finally fesses up to his "sister" Ruth she is furious. To redeem himself he sets out to find the real son. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

During nights in a Bowery food shelter Karl Wagner (Bela Lugosi) takes in men who are hungry a cares for them by having his nurse assistant Judy Malvern (Wanda McKay) tend to their medical needs. Wagner uses this as a front for an organized recruiting location for criminals whom he uses for robberies and dispatches them, and allows his in-house doctor flunky to treat some with a drug that converts them into zombies whereupon he keeps locked up in a basement prison. During the day Wagner takes on the identity of New York University psychology professor Frederick Brenner who keeps his students riveted with his knowledge of human nature. Inspired student Richard Dennison (John Archer) decides to do some research for his term paper and goes to the soup kitchen where his girl friend Judy works, which happens to be where Brenner/ Wagner runs his criminal zombie activities. Wagner takes Richard in and turns him into an un-dead follower, and Judy gets suspicious of Richards absence and calls the police. Wagner attempts to escape when he takes a wrong step to avoid being arrested and some serious events take place.