Larry Nelson (Richard Basehart) is a 29 year old convict who wins his plea for a pardon. But "outside the wall" freedom is initially not so sweet. He was in a reform school at 14 - he describes himself as an incorrigible hood at that age - and when a guard who dislikes him hits him, he hits him back, the guard falls and dies, and Larry is convicted of murder but given life in prison instead of death because of his young age. So he is free with 672 dollars he has earned over the course of his imprisonment (that would be about 12 thousand dollars now), but he has never been on a date, never taken a drink, never driven a car or learned how, never applied for a real job. After a couple of days of bad experiences in the city, he hits the road and "tramps it" to a small town and gets a job as a lab assistant in a hospital for TB patients, hoping just to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. On the way to the small town, he reads about a one million dollar robbery in which three of the robbers were killed and three armored car guards were killed. Two robbers escaped.
And then one of the robbers shows up at the rest home with a bad case of TB. Larry recognizes him from his time in prison, but true to the prison code, tells him he will not rat him out. The robber asks him to help him get some of the robbery loot to his wife in Philadelphia. Larry refuses to help. At first. But then he starts pining for a nurse who is money hungry bad news, and he thinks that some of the robber's money will win her affection, so he agrees to help the ailing robber. Complications ensue.
I would normally be annoyed by somebody who makes the obviously bad and even stupid choices that Larry Nelson makes in this film, figuring that any intelligent 30 year old should know better than to trust such a greedy woman as the nurse he lusts after or the murderous robber who wants his help. But then, Larry Nelson experientially is 14, not 30. Thus he makes the mistakes that any 14 year old would make in the same situation. But he learns fast.
This was really a great part for Basehart. I believe him as the hardened con and I believe him as the naive teenager in a 30 year old body. If you want to see Basehart in another film where he practically has a dual role, watch "Tension". But by all means do see this, as it has suspense, noirish undertones, and a great performance by Basehart.
