A safecracker goes straight after doing a stretch for a bum rap. He agrees to do one last job for his “pals”.

Down-on-his-luck film director Jimmie Dale takes a job at a fly-by-night acting school. He is drawn into the plans of the school’s owner to bilk a wealthy young man out…

The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery,…