In
Dead Reckoning, Rip Murdock (
Humphrey Bogart) recites the film's plotline to a priest in the confessional. Murdock and Johnny Drake (
William Prince)
are Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, en route to Washington by
train. Drake hops off and disappears, leading Murdock on a hectic
manhunt. Upon meeting Drake's former girlfriend Coral Chandler (
Lizabeth Scott), Murdock is thrown into a maelstrom of intrigue involving a crooked gambler (
Morris Carnovsky) and a complex blackmailing scheme. The upshot of this is that Murdock finds himself the prime suspect in a murder.
