Highway Dragnet

Decommissioned for one week from the US Marines at the final rank of Sergeant - a highly decorated one at that - Jim Henry, as he is trying to thumb rides out of town, is apprehended by the Las Vegas police who believe he murdered Terry Smith, the former model he was seen buying a drink for the previous evening at a bar, that encounter which included a public altercation between the two in her inebriation. As the police are unable to validate his alibi, Jim, having that survival instinct like he was still in the Korean War, in this case in knowing that he is innocent, seizes an opportunity to escape. He believes the best way to prove his innocence is to locate his alibi, meaning heading to a specific destination by the Salton Sea, which is made all the more difficult in needing to cross the state border on top of the highway dragnet set up by the lead Las Vegas investigator, Police Lt. Joe White Eagle. Along the way, Jim hitches a ride with photographer Mrs. H.G. Cummings and her model Susan Wilton who are headed to Apple Valley, California for a photo shoot. While Susan in particular is enamored with their male passenger, beyond his assistance with their many especially mechanical troubles with their car, Mrs. Cummings and Susan become less friendly to him when they discover he is the man wanted for murder in Las Vegas, by that time they already across the Nevada-California border. While Jim continues on his mission with his two now somewhat unwilling travel companions, he, to save himself from what either Mrs. Cummings or Susan are willing to do to save themselves from a purported murderer, may have to convince them he is not the perpetrator, which may be easier done but none the less dangerous for Jim.