***SPOILERS*** Trying get to the bottom of a major counterfeit ring Treasury Agents O'Brien & Genaro, Dennis O'Keefe & Alfred Ryder, are giver cover by the Treasury Department as two members, Harrigan & Galvani, of the defunct Detroit River Gange in order to infiltrate the city's notorious Vantucci Mob that's involve in a major counterfeiting printing operation. This illegal counterfeit racket is draining millions out of the US Treasury flooding the streets of Detroit and it's surroundings with millions of counterfeit 10 20 50 and 100 dollar bills.
It doesn't take long for the two agents to get taken in by the mob boss Carlo Luigi Vantucci, Anton Kosta, as members of his gang in that they schooled themselves in the Detrot's Mob history and knew as much about it, and how it operates, as boss Vantucci did. Finding a L.A connection to the Vantucci's mob counterfeit operations Agent O'Brian aka hoodlum Harrigan goes to the West Coast to establish an eyes and ears infiltration of the L.A Mob connected with Vantucci headed by suave and very well dressed mobster "Shiv" Triano, John Wengaf.
The key that connects both the L.A and Detroit mobs is this counterfeit expert called The Schemer, Wallace Ford, which is obviously a street, not legally given or Christened, name. The Schemer gets in a lot of hot water with his bosses back in Detroit in them being snookered into believing by Agent O'Brian and later Genero that he's going to rat them out. The Scheamers L.A Boss of Bosses Dragon-Lady Evangeline, Mary Meade, is also told that he's been shooting his mouth off in public about her, together with Triano & Vantucci, counterfeit operations while under the influence of alcohol as well as strong Chinese herbal stimulants. This of course is a lie concocted by O'Brian & Genero but it does get The Schemer to open up to them about what he knows about his higher ups that includes a secret little black book, that he has hidden in a public locker, that can hang all of them.
Evangeline not taking any chances in The Schemer ratting her and her ultimate boss, the really big cheese in this whole operation, out the well known antique dealer and philanthropist Oscar Grffney has him steamed to death as he's locked in a local Turkish Bath House steam-room by her top henchman Moxie, Charles McGraw. It was in fact Evangelines overreaction to undercover agents O'Brian & Genero accusations to The Schemers loose lips that eventually had her Gaffney & Co. end up behind bars of underground, in a grave, at the end of the film. The Schemer did in fact finger Agent Genaro when he was spotted by his wife Mary, June Lockhart, as he and Agent Genero, known to The Scheamer as hoodlum Galvani, were walking through an L.A fruit and vegetable market.
Agent Genero ended up getting gunned down by the "Shiv's" hoodlums only to cover his fellow agents, O'Brian, true identity and cluing him, who was forced to watch his friend and fellow Treasury Agent get murdered, in to where to find the late Schemer's little black book. It was the black book together with a raid of Evangeline's and big boss-man's Gaffney's docked freighter, where the entire underground counterfeit operation was being conduced, that finally put an end to this whole multi-state & city counterfeit ring. The raid also landed Agent O'Brian in the hospital with at least two slugs in his gut but fortunately, unlike his partner Agent Genero, he survived to live another day.
It doesn't take long for the two agents to get taken in by the mob boss Carlo Luigi Vantucci, Anton Kosta, as members of his gang in that they schooled themselves in the Detrot's Mob history and knew as much about it, and how it operates, as boss Vantucci did. Finding a L.A connection to the Vantucci's mob counterfeit operations Agent O'Brian aka hoodlum Harrigan goes to the West Coast to establish an eyes and ears infiltration of the L.A Mob connected with Vantucci headed by suave and very well dressed mobster "Shiv" Triano, John Wengaf.
The key that connects both the L.A and Detroit mobs is this counterfeit expert called The Schemer, Wallace Ford, which is obviously a street, not legally given or Christened, name. The Schemer gets in a lot of hot water with his bosses back in Detroit in them being snookered into believing by Agent O'Brian and later Genero that he's going to rat them out. The Scheamers L.A Boss of Bosses Dragon-Lady Evangeline, Mary Meade, is also told that he's been shooting his mouth off in public about her, together with Triano & Vantucci, counterfeit operations while under the influence of alcohol as well as strong Chinese herbal stimulants. This of course is a lie concocted by O'Brian & Genero but it does get The Schemer to open up to them about what he knows about his higher ups that includes a secret little black book, that he has hidden in a public locker, that can hang all of them.
Evangeline not taking any chances in The Schemer ratting her and her ultimate boss, the really big cheese in this whole operation, out the well known antique dealer and philanthropist Oscar Grffney has him steamed to death as he's locked in a local Turkish Bath House steam-room by her top henchman Moxie, Charles McGraw. It was in fact Evangelines overreaction to undercover agents O'Brian & Genero accusations to The Schemers loose lips that eventually had her Gaffney & Co. end up behind bars of underground, in a grave, at the end of the film. The Schemer did in fact finger Agent Genaro when he was spotted by his wife Mary, June Lockhart, as he and Agent Genero, known to The Scheamer as hoodlum Galvani, were walking through an L.A fruit and vegetable market.
Agent Genero ended up getting gunned down by the "Shiv's" hoodlums only to cover his fellow agents, O'Brian, true identity and cluing him, who was forced to watch his friend and fellow Treasury Agent get murdered, in to where to find the late Schemer's little black book. It was the black book together with a raid of Evangeline's and big boss-man's Gaffney's docked freighter, where the entire underground counterfeit operation was being conduced, that finally put an end to this whole multi-state & city counterfeit ring. The raid also landed Agent O'Brian in the hospital with at least two slugs in his gut but fortunately, unlike his partner Agent Genero, he survived to live another day.