****SPOILERS**** It's after English race car driver Jerry Morrison was killed on the racetrack in a fatal car accident that M Squad's Let. Det. Frank Ballinger, played by tough guy Lee Marvin, got on the case looking if there was any foul play in Morrison's death. It soon became evident that Morrison's old lady-wife-Peggy was having a secret affair with fellow race car driver Joe Calhoun who doubled as a car mechanic at Morrison's garage.
Ballinger's very sensitive-to the scent of foul odors-ruby red nose ends up smelling a rat in what Peggy told him about her knowing nothing, up close and from afar, about Joe's having any kind of relationship with her soon found out that the person who looked after Morrison's race car Marxie Doyle got good and drunk, with Joe providing the drinks, the night before the race that killed Morrison and that Joe Calhoun, with Marxie sleeping it off, took his place looking after Morrison's car. Before Marxi could be interviewed by Ballinger he himself was killed in a fatal car crash on the track with his tire-rods, like that of Morrison's , mysteriously cut!
***SPOILERS**** Ballinger catching Joe Calhoun together with Morrioson's "grieving wife" Peggy about to take off out of the country now has all the evidence he needs to arrest the two and put them behind bars for both Morrison and Doyle's not so accidental fatal accidents on the race track. With Joe not ready to be taken in it's up to Ballinger to take him into custody forcefully and he gets that done without once, in the knock down drag out fight he has with him, losing his hat! As for Peggy her involvement in her husband's death will end up petting her behind bars and minus any makeup or the latest woman's fashions for the next 5 to ten years.