Lucky Jordan 1942

During World War II, the gangster Lucky Jordan, Alan Ladd, is drafted and assigned to a training base near his New York City office. He avoids the rigors of boot camp by hiding in the unit’s canteen. One of the attendants, Jill Evans, Helen Walker, reports him to the base colonel and he is sent to the stockade. Jordan escapes by stealing an army engineer’s car. Outside the camp, Jordan is run off the road by two thugs, but they flee when Jill happens onto the scene. Jordan forces Jill to accompany him to the city. She discards a briefcase containing army documents. After sneaking back into his headquarters, Jordan learns from a disloyal underling Slip Moran Sheldon Leonard that the two men he encountered outside the base were after the discarded papers. An enemy spy ring has offered $50,000 for it. After retrieving the briefcase and its information, Jordan orders Slip to arrange an exchange. Later, the thugs surprise Jordan, knock him unconscious, and run off with the papers.

Jordan tracks the spy ring to a botanical preserve on Long Island, where he finds Slip Moran and a traitor named Kilpatrick Miles Mander holding the papers. He grabs the documents and flees. The preserve’s exits are immediately locked, but Jordan hides the papers and an explanatory note inside a man’s umbrella. Jill, who has trailed Jordan to the preserve, asks a guard to use a phone to notify authorities of Jordan’s location. The guard instead connects her to Kilpatrick, who deceives her by masquerading as a government agent, causing her to unwittingly assist in Jordan’s capture.

Herr Kesselman, the spy ring’s chief, oversees an interrogation of Jordan, who is threatened with torture and quickly invents a story about the location of the papers. After he is left alone with Kesselman and a lone guard, Jordan grabs the guard’s gun. He then tells Kesselman he will surrender the papers to the government out of a sense of new-found patriotism. The FBI arrives and nabs the entire ring. Jill tells Lucky he will probably get a medal, but he is returned to the stockade to serve the remainder of his punishment.