Years of police work have taught Detective Finlay that where there's crime there's motive. However he finds no usual motive when investigating a man beaten to death, this man was killed because he was a Jew. "Hate", Finlay says, "is like a gun." A landmark film noir nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Edward Dmytryk directs a taught stylish tale that, certainly for its time, dared to explore a topic rarely covered in Hollywood; anti-Semitism in the US.