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Following the murder of a Cuban man on a busy street in New
York City, Frank Westlake, the chief patrol inspector for the United States
Department of Immigration, begins an investigation into the crime and its
connection to an illegal alien smuggling racket headed by a man known as
Palinov.
Meanwhile, in Havana, Cuba, immigration detective Pete
Karczag dedicates himself to the capture of Palinov. Posing as a
Hungarian refugee desperate to gain entry into the United States, Pete
befriends Palinov and offers him money to secure his passage to America.
While waiting for Palinov to introduce him to a smuggler, Pete meets
Marianne Lorress, a refugee from Vienna who survived internment in a German
concentration camp.
Late one night, Pete walks by a nightclub just as Marianne is
being arrested for taking employment there without working papers.
Thinking fast, Pete wins Marianne's release by posing as her husband.
When one of Palinov's henchmen, Harry Nordell, discovers that Pete is really
an American agent, he knocks him unconscious and reports his discovery to
Palinov. Though Palinov later tells Pete that he knows who he is, Pete
vows to continue his search for evidence.
Later, however, Pete, having fallen deeply in love with
Marianne, makes plans to resign from his job so that he may stay in Cuba and
continue his romance. Marianne leaves Pete when Palinov tells her that
he is an American immigration agent.
Harry is given orders to kill Pete, but Pete manages to
overpower him and then forces him to confess that a man named Archer Delby
James is the pilot who will be flying Palinov's plane to the United States
later that night. After informing Westlake about the illegal flight
and its pilot, Pete returns to the United States to help plan the
interception of the airplane.
Meanwhile, Palinov, realizing that immigration officials are
closing in on him, decides to flee Cuba with the next group that James will
be smuggling to the United States. Among the six passengers whom
Palinov is smuggling is Marianne, but Palinov plans to make her his captive
once they arrive in America. As American Navy planes follow the
smugglers, Pete, aware that Marianne is on the airplane, monitors the
flight's progress with apprehension. When Palinov and James spot the
Navy planes, they attempt to escape capture by crash-landing the plane in
the Florida Everglades. After they kill one passenger and abandon the
others, Palinov and James take Marianne and attempt a getaway on a small
life raft. While Westlake rescues the abandoned airplane passengers,
Pete takes a motor boat to the site of the crash and finds Marianne with
Palinov. Aware that the gas tank is empty and that Palinov will not be
able to escape, Pete then trades his boat for Marianne. Once safely in
Pete's custody, Marianne accepts the penalty for entering the country
illegally, but looks forward to a happy future with Pete. |
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