Bill Fenwick (Richard Dix) is a very famous and well-to-do lawyer. However, he's gotten some bad people off and it's bothering his conscience. So, instead of becoming a mouthpiece for the mob, he decides to do something to help others. So, he travels out west and becomes a special undercover agent for the government. Unfortunately, the leader of the mob has a sister who has fallen for 'Richard' (Bill's undercover name). What's to become of the criminals with their fake gold mine as well as 'Bill's' girl?This is a B-movie from RKO and the studio made quite a few lower-budgeted films starring Richard Dix. While he's pretty much forgotten today, Dix was a fine actor and quite likable--even though he wasn't exactly handsome leading man material. The writing is solid as is Dix's performance. Worth your time.

***SPOILERS*** The square jawed Dick Tracy look alike Richard Dix is mob mouthpiece, shyster lawyer, Bill Fenwick who after his kid brother George, Owen Davis Jr, was gunned down in a shootout with the Selton Gange decided to go straight. That's in dropping his mob connections and clients and get the mobster who murdered his brother mob boss Eddie Selton, J. Carrol Naish. Getting a tip that the Selton Gang is hiding out in and around the Quartzburg mining town in Navada Fenwick using the allies of Dick Galt a real-estate lawyer and examiner shoots down there to get the goods on Sealton and bring him and his gang to justice.As things turn out Fenwick unknowingly gets involved with Selton's sister Virginia, Margaret Callahan, whom he met driving through town while he was moonlighting, to make ends meet, as a gas station attendant. What the love sick Fenwick, who fell for Virginia like a ton of bricks, didn't know was that she was on her way to see her on the run from the police brother Eddie Sealton who was recovering from gunshot wounds in the shoot-out where his brother George was killed.It's Selton's second in command Jimmy Plummer, Joe Sawyer, who smells a rat in all this "lovey dovey" relationship between Virginia and Fenwick, who's using the name Bick Galt, that soon proves him right. But by then the lid is off and the local police and federal agents are on to him who've been alerted by Fenwick of his and his gang's whereabouts. With the law bearing down on him Plummer decides to take over the Selton Gang and ice it's boss Eddie Sealton only to end up in a nut cracker like squeeze play from not only the law and Fenwick but Eddie Selton himself.Richard Dix was very impressive as lawyer and later undercover investigator Bill Fernwick that it made you wonder why his career as a lawman and private investigator in films wasn't as successful as the many other actors who played the same parts and were far more successful, career wise, in them.

Back in the days of that mixed metaphor, Radio Pictures, you needn't need much of a premise to make a B movie. In this case, for example, the crooks solve the difficulty of selling stolen gold bullion by palming it off as gold ore. Nobody bothers to ask how that trick is pulled off. Or why no one is suspicious of a gang of out-of-town hoods holed up in an old Nevada mine. But after his kid brother is gunned down by the gang, ex-underworld lawyer Richard Dix turns special investigator and sets out to catch the bad guys. Stolid as ever, Dix manages two expressions -- his mouth creases up slightly when he's happy and down when he's gloomy. Margaret Callahan (who quit acting not long after this movie was made) wanders in as the comely sister of the gunman he's after. Fortunately, the gangsters are played by people with some acting chops -- like J. Carroll Naish as the snarling mob boss and Joseph Sawyer as his most pugnacious thug. And even Jed Prouty is on hand as a doctor-for-hire.

It seems that this RKO feature is very like a Paramount one from this time, crime films - gangster ones, I mean - with the likes of J Carrol Naish, Anthony Quinn, Akim Tamiroff, Lloyd Nolan. I did not know RKO pictures made crime films like that. A discovery for me. But a pretty good one.No boredom at all in the viewing of this film. Of course, we have already seen this topic a hundred times. The good guy - Dix - trying to infiltrate a gang lead by a dangerous fellow - J Caroll Naish - and who falls in love of his sister - the gangster, I mean - no surprise. And predictable results.But it's worth seeing it.And Joe Sawyer in the "heavy" character is also juicy.Try it if you can.