After boxer Swede (Burt Lancaster) is gunned down by a pair of contract killers, insurance investigator Jim Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) sets about piecing together the motives behind the murder. Swede's story is revealed in flashback - how he became involved in the crime world of Big Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker), only to be seduced into armed robbery by Colfax's glamorous moll, Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner).

Alexander Hall directs this classic drama starring Robert Montgomery as a boxer who his called up to Heaven too early due to a clerical error. When promising fighter Joe Pendleton (Montgomery) is killed in a plane accident, he is greeted at the Pearly Gates by guardian angel Mr Jordan (Claude Rains) who tells him that he has arrived too soon and that he must go back to Earth and enter the body of a soul who needs some nurturing. The cast also includes Rita Hayworth, John Emery and Don Costello.