Dangerous Profession (A) (1949)

Ex-policeman Vince Kane is a partner with Joe Farley as bail bond brokers, but retains his ties and friendship with the police and Detective Nick Ferrone. The latter picks up brokerage clerk Claude Brackett as a suspect in the securities robbery in which a policeman was killed, and Kane goes with him when the detective searches Brackett's apartment, and Kane finds that Brackett's wife Lucy is his former sweetheart. She insists her husband is innocent and pleads with Kane to get him out on bail but she has only $4,000 of the $25,000 needed. A mysterious emissary puts up $12,000 and Kane, over Farley's objections, makes up the rest from the company's money. Brackett is murdered after his release. For Lucy, Kane investigates and finds that Brackett had dealings with night club owner Jerry McKay and a hoodlum named Roy Collins. Suspecting McKay was behind the robbery, Kane begins a campaign in which he himself behaves like a crook, and demands a heavy bribe from McKay for his silence. Farley denounces this tactic, and is met by Kane for a payment as well, or he will be branded in league with the crooks.