In this suspenseful film, a sinister figure is targeting the individuals who played a role in condemning a murderer to death. In the midst of this drama, after six members of the pivotal jury have met gruesome fates, investigative journalist Jim Bannon embarks on a relentless pursuit to locate the surviving jurors and ultimately unveil the enigmatic killer. What emerges is a shocking revelation: the original murderer, presumed dead in a conflagration at a mental institution, has somehow managed to escape his supposed demise.
Percy Blaine, a drug dealer, is dating a stripper named Tanya. Blaine regularly cheats on Tanya, despite his love for her, with Blaine's most recent fling being with another stripper named Stella. Blaine's boss, Tonino, orders Blaine to deliver cocaine to one of Tonino's criminal associates, Alejandro Biscotti.
Lila is a seemingly good-natured go-go dancer who strips at a seedy topless bar on the Sunset Strip. After taking LSD, Lila becomes a psychopathic serial killer. She continues to pick up men at the bar where she is employed, but after her sanity is lost she routinely is interrupted mid-coitus by psychedelic bad trips in which she visualizes a balding, half-naked old man clutching wads of cash in one hand and a bunch of bananas in the other.
Colonel Kruger (Nigel Hawthorne) tortures a political prisoner (Eric Stoltz) to learn who his anti-apartheid collaborators are. Ten years later, this same Colonel himself becomes a prisoner and is interrogated about his own offenses.
Carole Raymond is a film star whose best years are behind her; so, she decides to buy in a real estate plan with Jeff Caldwell, who is really running an illegitimate matrimonial service.
When his longtime friend Captain Pat Chambers is wounded in a drug bust and arrested as an accessory to drug trafficking, private detective Mike Hammer vows to help him clear his name. Assistant District Attorney Barrington dislikes Hammer and believes that Chambers is guilty.
The Tramp, a janitor in this film, is fired from work for accidentally knocking his bucket of water out of the window and onto his boss, the chief banker. Meanwhile, one of the junior managers is being threatened with exposure by his bookie for his unpaid gambling debts, and thus decides to steal from the company. He is caught in the act of raiding the vault by the bank secretary, who is threatened with a gun and therefore presses the janitor button for help.
Treasury agents Art Kerr and Jim Haynes are investigating a global counterfeiting operation believed to be linked to the circus. Acrobat Bert King agrees to help his old friend Art search for the counterfeiters, and his acrobatic partner June Edwards assists him. They are repeatedly threatened by two thugs, Daley and Travis.
During a five-minute cinema intermission, Jackie Wales leaves the theater. He changes into a messenger's outfit and drives to the house of Arthur Mansfield, whom he shoots before rushing back to the theater and his date. After her father is shot, Laura Mansfield sees the killer hurdle the house's gate.
After retiring from the service, Ken Williams goes back to his old school, Norton University, where he used to be an appreciated student with an expected future as a basketball player. Together with fellow veteran Andy Rawlins, Ken registers to continue and complete his studies. They are welcomed back by the student liaison for veterans, Ann Taylor, and Andy is a bit surprised by the warm welcome, since he is in the dark about Ken's previous accolades.
Pickett presided over 95 executions in his 15-year career, including the very first by lethal injection. He kept his feelings about his work from his family, instead audiotaping an account of each one. Initially pro-execution, he became an anti-death penalty activist.
New York Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou) decides to take a vacation after six years of fighting crime, accompanied by his attractive secretary, Miss Kelly (Ruthelma Stevens). On the train to their destination, they spot a rundown circus, "The Greater John T Rainey Shows", heading to the same place. The circus is home to a love triangle: Josie La Tour (Greta Nissen), her husband Flandrin (Dwight Frye) (whom she is intent on divorcing), and her lover The Great Sebastian (Donald Cook (actor)), all three trapeze performers.
Benson, the world's most celebrated criminologist, has walked away from a career that made him both feared and revered. Known for his ice-cold logic and ruthless efficiency in tracking down criminals, Benson now lives in seclusion, his home as barren as the heart within him. His withdrawal from public life follows a private heartbreak—his fiancée, Stella, had left him, repulsed by his remorseless pursuit of crime over compassion.
Sports journalist Peter Ferreday tries to prevent promising college basketball player Johnny Long from becoming involved with a betting ring but is unable to stop him from shaving points during games for gambler Mike Taft.
Captain Stephen Dennett of the Royal Air Force is aboard a passenger airliner flying to South Africa, when he meets the beautiful and glamorous Felice Falcon. He is unaware that Felice is an accomplished jewel thief traveling with her partner in crime Michael Barclay. They are planning a heist in the South African mines in which they will steal a shipment of diamonds and escape unnoticed.
Tom Buchan is an alcoholic journalist whose once memorable work has been destroyed by his constant drunken antics that have cost him his future. Buchan boasts to his colleagues that they report news, whilst he makes it. He sees a chance for redemption by getting the life story of Gino Rossi, an Italian crime boss on the run.
Blair Vickers (O'Keefe) is head of the UAW union whose brother is killed during the bombing of the union headquarters. Gus Linden (O'Brien), a gangster determined to gain control of the UAW, is the man behind the bombing.
The film, based on a story by former crime reporter Martin Mooney, is about a newspaper journalist who faces prison time because he refuses to name his sources. To complicate matters more, the reporter falls in love with the sister of one of the racketeers he's trying to take down.
The movie follows the life of Chicago burglar Kaspar Karr. In the introduction, Kaspar cases and robs a Mexican Grocery Store. He counts up his score and introduces himself.
