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Orignially, George Madison (Ed Binns) wanted no more than one pinball
machine for his tavern to test it out, fearing that too many such machines
would attract the wrong crowd (i.e. gamblers and prostitutes) - then
though Phil Jackman (Russ Conway), racketeer with union ties, muscles in,
and before you know it he has managed to force Madison to put up any
number of pinball and slot machines - but actually Madison cannot complain
too much because he gets a fair share out of the machines' earnings and
his tavern soon becomes one of Portland's hotspots. Still, Madison wants
out of the dirty business and even tries to tip off the police so they
close his place down - but to no avail.
Madison is almost prepared to give in to the gangsters, but then one of
them, Joe (Frank Gorshin), almost rapes his daughter Ruth, and even though
Jackman takes care of it by having Joe killed, Madison now knows it's time
to fight back. So he sends his family away, has himself wired by the
police, gives in to each and any of Jackman's demands, but in return
demands to join his racket - and Jackman, impressed by Madison's
ambitions, happily accepts him into his ranks and relies more and more on
him.
Then though, one of Jackman's prostitutes, Iris (Jeanne Carmen), grows
suspicious of Madison, and soon enough, he is found out and tied up and
tortured by the crooks - which would be bad enough, but then his daughter
Ruth returns rather unannounced, and the gangsters threaten to torture her
too should he not hand over the tapes he made of all their conversations.
In the meantime though, the police and upright union men have teamed up to
raid the warehouse Jackman is regularly using for his crooked operations,
and they arrive there just in time to save Madison and Ruth and arrest all
the baddies.
And once more, Portland is a safe place to live and its unions are
clean as can be ...
Run-of-the-mill grade B gangster flick made up from a rather boring
script, below average performances and a very flat directing job.
Not totally bad, just rather a waste of time.
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