Bodyguard (1948)

• 57%
• 1948
• Crime
• Thriller
• Richard Fleischer
• Lawrence Tierney
• Priscilla Lane
• Phillip Reed

Police Detective Mike Carter often prefers to bend the rules in his work, he using his physical brawn to speak for him, resulting in no love lost between him and his immediate superior, Lieutenant Borden. Rather than be suspended for insubordination in bending the rules one too many times, Mike decides to quit. His unemployment has the potential to be short lived when he is approached by Freddie Dysen, the nephew of Gene Dysen, the owner of the Continental Meat Packing Company. Gene has been receiving threats and Freddie wants to hire Mike to act as Gene's bodyguard. Not liking Freddie's pushiness in assuming he can be bought, Mike declines despite the lucrative paycheck. Although it changes the complexity, Mike still declines when he sees that Gene is not a man but a woman, who believes the threats meaningless, as does her personal secretary, Connie Fenton. And despite Gene and Connie not wanting a bodyguard hanging around due to the notoriety, Mike does change his mind and accepts the job - he officially working for Freddie - when an attempt is actually made on Gene's life. Early into this job, Mike gets implicated in murder. Mike, with the help of his fiancée Doris Brewster, who works as a clerk at the police department, has to evade the police who are after him, while still trying to figure out who is attempting to kill Gene, he knowing the murder and the threat against Gene related. This situation places both Mike and Doris' lives in danger, especially as the mastermind behind what is going on has very specific thoughts as to Mike's place in the plot.