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Charles Tatum, a down-on-his-luck reporter, takes a job with a small New Mexico newspaper. The job is pretty boring until he finds a man trapped in an old Indian dwelling. He jumps at the chance to make a name for himself by taking over and prolonging the rescue effort, and feeding stories to major newspapers. He creates a national media sensation and milks it for all it is worth - until things go terribly wrong.
Chuck Tatum has been a reporter for the small town and thus "small" newspaper, the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, for one year. He has over the years worked for the big newspapers back east, but was systematically fired from each of those jobs for reasons from libel to cheating with the boss wife to excessive alcohol consumption. Irrespective of those firings, Chuck knows the newspaper business and how to write a sensational front page story. He was up front with the Sun-Bulletins owner and editor-in-chief, Jacob Q. Boot, that he wanted this job for an unknown temporary period until he wrote the next big story, which could catapult him back to the big times and a job back at one of those big city newspapers. He was also up front with principled Boot, a lawyer by trade and thus a stickler for the truth, that if it is a slow news day, he could manufacture a newsworthy story. It is on his way to cover the latest in a long line of small stories that Chuck stumbles across a situation that he believes he could spin into that big story. In the small hamlet of Escudero three hours outside of Albuquerque, Leo Minosa, the owner/operator of the local trading post, has been caught pinned underneath some debris in a cave-in. The cave a Native Indian site, Leo had systematically been stripping it of its native artifacts for sale at the trading post, always without incident until now. After entering the cave and assessing that Leo on the most part is all right except for not being able to get out from under the massive amount of debris, Chuck begins to take control of the situation for his own benefit, bringing the newspapers impressionable young photographer, Herbie Cook, along for the ride. In Chucks perfect world, he would be the only reporter to gain access to the cave, and would keep Leo in this situation as long as humanly possible (meaning in Chucks eyes two weeks or thereabouts) to milk the story for all its worth for Leo ultimately to emerge from the cave relatively unscathed back into the arms of his loving wife, Lorraine Minosa. To achieve most of this, he has to be able to manipulate the corrupt local sheriff, Gus Kretzer, who, in his professional capacity without a local geotechnical expert to gauge the cave stability, is to control what happens at the cave to get Leo out safely. The other issue for Chuck is that Lorraine is far from the loving wife, she an opportunistic young woman who hates her life and sees Leos current predicament as the perfect opportunity to take whatever cash on hand and leave him for good.
Kirk Douglas
Chuck Tatum
Jan Sterling
Lorraine Minosa
Robert Arthur
Herbie Cook
Porter Hall
Jacob Q. Boot
Frank Cady
Al Federber
Richard Benedict
Leo Minosa
Ray Teal
Sheriff Gus Kretzer
Lewis Martin
McCardle
John Berkes
Papa Minosa
Frances Dominguez
Mama Minosa
Gene Evans
Deputy Sheriff
Frank Jaquet
Sam Smollett
Harry Harvey
Dr. Hilton
Bob Bumpas
Radio Announcer
Geraldine Hall
Nellie Federber
Richard Gaines
Nagel
Roy Regnier
Nagel - New York Editor (replaced by Richard Gaines)
Oscar Belinda
Barker
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