***SPOILERS*** It's when non smoking drinking and gambling All-American boy Sam Martin, Audie Murphy, got hit by financial hard times like not being able to pay his bills that he turned to shady dealings with international gun runner Hanagan, Eddie Albert. It was Hanagan who wanted Sam, who knew the the treacherous waters that separates Cuba from the US mainland like the back of his hand, to sail his fishing boat into Havana Cuba that at the time, the Cuban Revaluation, was off-limits to American shipping. When there Hanagan without Sam's knowledge plans to unload hundreds of rifles machine guns and ammunition to the Cuban rebels fighting the Bistista Regime. With Sam a bit hesitant at first he agrees to sail both Hanagan and his Swedish girlfriend Eve, Gita Hall the former Miss Sweden 1952, to Cuba even if caught he risks not only losing his boat but ending up behind bars in a Cuban lock-up.
What was to be a harmless night out partying in Havana turned into a night of murder when Hanagan shot and killed a Cuban policeman, for asking too many embarrassing questions, and cab driver, for knowing too much, before the evening was over. Back in Key West with his wife Lucy, Patricia Owens, Sam finds out from US Coast Guard Commander Welsh, Ted Jacques, about the murders in Havana and realizes that he unknowingly had a part in them! With a double murder rap hanging over his head and his beloved fishing boat about to be dispossessed by the local bank Sam has no choice to go along with Hanagan grand scheme to smuggle thousands of weapons into Cuba for the Cuban rebels lead by the incomparable and fearless "El Beardo" himself Fidel Castro!
Being the back-stabbing and scheming swine that he is Hanagan had no intentions to go through with his deal in supplying the Cuban rebels with guns or anything else. All he wanted was their cash and then leave them out in the cold with crates of rocks and junk instead of the weapons that they paid him for. It was Sam's 1st mate the always drunk Harvey, Everett Slone, who in a rare moment of sobriety found out about Hanagan's plan and informed Sam about it.
***SPOILER ALERT*** With Sam now knowing just what Hanagan and his hoods lead by Buzurki, Richard Jeackel, had in store for him as well as Cuban rebel leader Carlos Romero, Carlos Contreras, his only hope of surviving was to go along with the rat-fink killer until he lets his guard down and then go for the kill! That's if Hanagan and his boys don't start to suspect that Sam is on to them and end up killing him first!
P.S Strange casting of Everett Slone as the drunken rummy and Sam's 1st mate Harvey. Slone knows for his parts as a sophisticate villain, like in "The Lady of Shanghai", and conniving and unscrupulous wheeler dealer, like in "Patterns", seemed a bit out of place in that role.
What was to be a harmless night out partying in Havana turned into a night of murder when Hanagan shot and killed a Cuban policeman, for asking too many embarrassing questions, and cab driver, for knowing too much, before the evening was over. Back in Key West with his wife Lucy, Patricia Owens, Sam finds out from US Coast Guard Commander Welsh, Ted Jacques, about the murders in Havana and realizes that he unknowingly had a part in them! With a double murder rap hanging over his head and his beloved fishing boat about to be dispossessed by the local bank Sam has no choice to go along with Hanagan grand scheme to smuggle thousands of weapons into Cuba for the Cuban rebels lead by the incomparable and fearless "El Beardo" himself Fidel Castro!
Being the back-stabbing and scheming swine that he is Hanagan had no intentions to go through with his deal in supplying the Cuban rebels with guns or anything else. All he wanted was their cash and then leave them out in the cold with crates of rocks and junk instead of the weapons that they paid him for. It was Sam's 1st mate the always drunk Harvey, Everett Slone, who in a rare moment of sobriety found out about Hanagan's plan and informed Sam about it.
***SPOILER ALERT*** With Sam now knowing just what Hanagan and his hoods lead by Buzurki, Richard Jeackel, had in store for him as well as Cuban rebel leader Carlos Romero, Carlos Contreras, his only hope of surviving was to go along with the rat-fink killer until he lets his guard down and then go for the kill! That's if Hanagan and his boys don't start to suspect that Sam is on to them and end up killing him first!
P.S Strange casting of Everett Slone as the drunken rummy and Sam's 1st mate Harvey. Slone knows for his parts as a sophisticate villain, like in "The Lady of Shanghai", and conniving and unscrupulous wheeler dealer, like in "Patterns", seemed a bit out of place in that role.