Crime Wave (1954 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sterling Hayden does some deliciously authoritative acting in Andre de Toth‘s Crime Wave (1954).  He plays a police detective, a man of some prejudice but mainly tough-mindedness and determination.

Three thieves rob a filling station, but a passing cop puts a slug in one of them.  This paves the way for a mini-crime wave involving murder and the kidnapping of handsome Gene Nelson (soon to be in Oklahoma!) and lovely Phyllis Kirk (an unknown to me). . . Steely stuff, this, with a fitting pace and frequently a top-notch look.  Sometimes it seems to have stepped out of the pages of Confidential magazine.