Bigoted, white ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) teams up with Dave Burke (Ed Begley), a dishonorably discharged former cop, to rob a bank in upstate New York. Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte), a jazz musician with a gambling problem, reluctantly joins Slater and Burke after a hoodlum named Bacco threatens Johnny's family over unpaid debts. Everything that can go wrong with the heist does so, and racially generated friction boils over as Burke and Johnny must choose the greater threat to their lives-the prejudice that divides them or the authorities nipping at their heels.

Produced by Harry Belafonte's HarBel Productions and written by blacklisted scribe Abe Polonsky. With Shelley Winters and noir gem Gloria Grahame and featuring an atmospheric score by Modern Jazz Quartet pianist John Lewis.