I have to wonder if the other reviewers actually watched the movie seeing all the inaccuracies in the plot summaries. Here is what actually happens. Mason is a loser in New York resorting to a life of petty crime. But he is a failure at even that, and has been getting by ratting out other criminals to a detective he knows. But even the detective treats him like slime. Mason turns the tables on the detective when he is sent into a crime den with $7000 to make a buy. Inside he is dumped on as usual, but he comes out and sends the detective in to make the bust as if he had set the criminal up as planned. Whereupon he steals the money and flees to Miami--flying first class and trying hard to enjoy it. He irritates the traveler sitting next to him in first class by lighting up a stogie. Just seeing how much air travel has deteriorated since those days is worth the full price of admission. The detective is up the creek for losing the money. The detective can barely keep his job, but manages to have the incident suppressed while he pursues Mason on his own time. Not only does he have to drive, but he gets victimized by one of the notorious I95 gas stations in Georgia, and again by a Georgia cop. This gives Mason enough time to get dumped on over and over and finally run into a plain Jane from long island who has been dumped on herself. They hit it off. Their unlikely romance is good for both of them. But finally, the detective catches up. But the money is gone. After a lot of failed attempts to get the money back, the detective decides to ripoff local drug pushers. This plan actually succeeds, but Mason has been truly saved through his new found love. Roles are reversed, the detective is now the criminal and mason is reformed--he won't even take the $100 the detective offers to help him get set up (the detective is content with the heroin and expects to make a killing back in NYC).
So the movie is about the redeeming power of love; the frailties and humanity in everyone. Mason is unmistakably Mason. It suffers from low budget. If the writing was a little better and the sound tracks were a little better, it would be a classic. Today it also suffers from having the wrong sixties stamp on it--films without much finish were fashionable then, or maybe people preferred their entertainment less flashy and more cerebral. Or more moralizing.
It is Mason's version of On the Waterfront.
