Edmund MacDonald

The duo play a chauffeur and a gardener whose hypochondriac employer, a wealthy young man with little experience, is drafted. Convinced that he need them in order to survive in the service, they join up as well. The Texas cavalry post to which they're all assigned is made far worse for the wear by the presence of these well-meaning troublemakers.

"From Poverty Row came a movie that, perhaps more than any other, epitomizes the dark fatalism at the heart of film noir. As he hitchhikes his way from New York to Los Angeles, a down-on-his-luck nightclub pianist (Tom Neal) finds himself with a dead body on his hands and nowhere to run--a waking nightmare that goes from bad to worse when he picks up the most vicious femme fatale in cinema history, Ann Savage's snarling, monstrously conniving drifter...

A nightclub pianist (Tom Neal) hitchhikes to join his girl in LA. When the sleazy gambler he's riding with mysteriously dies; he takes the man's identity. But thanks to a blackmailing dame (Ann Savage) his every move plunges him deeper into trouble.

Sergeant Dixie Smith has more raw recruits to turn into Marines. One of them is cocky Chris Winters, the son of an officer. Chris is hot after the major's niece. His attitude problem puts him in a position to redeem himself with D-Day fast approaching.