Plot
Gagin (Robert Montgomery) arrives on a bus in San Pablo, a small rural town in New Mexico during its annual fiesta. He plans to confront and blackmail money from a mobster named Frank Hugo (Fred Clark) as retribution for the death of his best friend Shorty.
While Gagin waits for Hugo's arrival in his hotel room, an FBI agent Bill Retz (Art Smith) approaches and asks him to turn over any incriminating information he may have on Hugo so the federal government can prosecute him. Gagin denies having any information and says he's in town only as a tourist.
Gagin has other plans than the prosecution of the mobster and when he's not able to shake the FBI agent, he takes refuge at an old carousel owned by the Pancho (Thomas Gomez). At the carousel he meets Pila (Wanda Hendrix) an Indian teenage peasant who refuses to leave his side despite his efforts to discourage her.
When Pila witnesses an attempt to kill Gagin, she and Pancho nurse his wounds, but when she leaves him alone for a moment he wanders back to Hugo's hotel in a delirious state. Pila catches up with Gagin as he reaches Hugo's room. Both are interrogated by Hugo and his henchmen until Retz intervenes. After giving Retz the evidence he was using to blackmail Hugo, Gagin leaves town.
The story is somewhat changed from the novel, in which "Sailor," (not Gagin) had wangled a deferment from serving in the war, the details of the blackmail and many others have been made less sordid, and the names of the other main non-Mexican characters (and their stations in life) are different as well.
Read more about this topic: Ride The Pink Horse
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