In post-war Britain, widower Bert Mallinson (Robert Newton) works nights as a signalman at a Southern Railway switch box in the port. During one of his shifts, he witnesses a fight between two men, resulting in one of them falling into the harbor along with a suitcase. Bert dives into the harbor and realizes the man is dead, so he retrieves the suitcase instead and finds it full of 5000 British Pounds! He considers turning it into the police, but his personal financial problems derail his honest intentions and he keeps the loot for himself. However, things get more and more complicated as Bert tries to keep these facts secret from everyone, including his daughter Betty (Margaret Barton). Also, the other man in the fight, who goes by the name Jim Brown (William Hartnell) returns to the area looking for the money bundle. To make matters worse, the police have found the body of the murdered man, and their investigation is leading them to Bert! They are assisted in their investigation by French Police Inspector Dupré (Marcel Dalio) as the missing loot seems to have originated from a casino heist in France. Later, Bert falls for a shrewd French dancer named Camelia (Simone Simon) who becomes privy to Bert's secret regarding the money. With so many interested parties searching for the missing money, Bert's personal safety and freedom are seriously jeopardized...

This is a hidden gem of film noir that is not the usual fare of hard-nosed gangsters plugging each other with lead, but a much simpler story of normal people that are cruelly forced by destiny into fatal ordeals. It's a very unusual and different kind of role for Robert Newton, who manages this difficult part with outstanding excellence. Simone Siomon is also remarkably good, while Doctor Who's William Hartnell plays the ruffian here and brings all the trouble. For some reason this film has been unseen for more than 30years. Not shown on TV, and unreleased on vhs or DVD. It is a great film with a truly great performance from a restrained Robert Newton, atmospheric photography making the best use of black and white, and taut direction. There's something sleazy and slipshod about the best of British film noir that makes it much more compelling; there's an air of desperation about it, of little men slipping through the cracks that the relative richness of American noir never noticed, outside of a few like Gordon Wiles' THE GANGSTER. With supporting players like William Hartnell and Marcel Dalio, this one has it.