Learning that his newspaper is about to be sold, a crusading editor (Humphrey Bogart) at first views his impending unemployment as an opportunity to win back his estranged wife (Kim Hunter). But when one of his reporters (Warren Stevens) is badly beaten, he goes on a crusade against the ganster who did it (Martin Gabel), hoping to prove him guilty of a woman's murder in the three issues that he has left.
Humphrey Bogart as Ed Hutcheson
Ethel Barrymore as Margaret Garrison
Kim Hunter as Nora Hutcheson
Ed Begley as Frank Allen
Warren Stevens as George Burrows
Paul Stewart as Harry Thompson
Martin Gabel as Tomas Rienzi
Joe De Santis as Herman Schmidt
Jim Backus as Jim Cleary