and
Anne Jeffreys During a storm in
Peru, a
cargo plane with two passengers leaves for
Panama. Midflight, the co-pilot responds to an alarm that the plane's door is open. He finds just one passenger, Charles Hasso (Marc Krah), who insists he tried to stop the other passenger from jumping out the door. Hasso takes the dead man's briefcase through Panamanian customs, after briefly being questioned by Major Rues (
George Givot) of the Panama secret police. Hasso hires private investigator Dan Hammer (
Pat O'Brien) as his bodyguard for two days. While Hammer is changing, Hasso surreptitiously clips a map from the stolen briefcase to Hammer's
room divider. Meanwhile, oil executive Walter Gredson (
Jerome Cowan) calls Hammer to ask for a meeting. Gredson was expecting a man from Peru to arrive with a map of
wildcat oil wells in Peru. Since the man jumped from the plane, Gredson suspects the other passenger has the map. He contracts Hammer for $5,000 to find Hasso and the map. At a nightclub, Maxine Manning (
Anne Jeffreys) plays for Hammer's attention. He invites her to come by his office after work. Artist Eric Molinar (
Walter Slezak) tries to hire him as a guide, but Hammer declines. Hammer visits Hasso's hotel and finds him dead in the bathtub. He heads back to his office, only to find it ransacked and Maxine unconscious. Molinar stops by, and Hammer deduces he is the one who trashed the office looking for the map. In the morning, Maxine visits Gredson who promises the map will make them rich enough to do whatever they want. He asks Maxine to keep on surveilling Hammer. Molinar returns to Hammer's office with two heavies and idly sketches the neighborhood while they beat the detective. Hammer has no idea where the map is. Molinar and his thugs visit Gredson. Maxine calls to say the map is at Hammer's office. Gredson is murdered by Molinar's men. When they arrive back at Hammer's office, he fights for his life with Maxine's help. During the melee, Molinar spots the map and runs off with it. Hammer subdues the thugs and tells Maxine to call the police. While Molinar is circuitously driven through the streets in Pop's (
Percy Kilbride) ancient taxi, Hammer pursues him on foot. Pop convinces Molinar the airport will be surveilled and that he should hide out in town for a few days before lamming. Pop takes Molinar to a building and tells him to go in through the back entrance. Hammer follows Molinar into the building and slugs him only to realize he is in Major Rues' office. Hammer takes the map out of Molinar's pocket and leaves him in police custody. Back at his office, Hammer sells the map to Gredson's colleague at the oil company and happily reunites with Maxine. == Cast ==