The Pace That Kills

Drug pusher Nick stops off at a small-town diner and convinces the girl who runs it, Jane Bradford, to hide him from the cops. Jane, a good girl, is smitten by the handsome and debonair Nick, who gives her a "headache powder" to snort to take her pounding headache away. Nick convinces her to go with him to the city, where they will be married. Jane leaves her mother and goes off to the city with Nick, where she discovers that he is really a drug dealer and that the "medicine" she has been taking is really cocaine. Jane becomes Nick's moll, but Nick becomes interested in a pretty blonde they see at a drive-in. The blonde has a crush on a guy who works at the drive-in, Eddie Bradford, Jane's brother, who has come to the city to look for her. Eddie's co-worker, Fanny, introduces him to cocaine; again under the pre-text that it is a "headache medicine." Eddie is hooked. The boss fires both of them, and they end up sharing a filthy skid-row apartment. Eddie can't get a job, he's too messed up on smack, so Fanny goes out and sells her virtues in order to get money for drugs. One night, she is passing a sleazy dive, the Dead Rat, when she is spotted by one of the customers, the blonde. She gives Fanny some money. Fanny returns to the apartment and gives him the money. He rushes off to an opium den, leaving her alone in the apartment. Meanwhile, Nick and his henchmen plot to kidnap the blond girl, who is the daughter of Mr. Farley, the district attorney. After an interminable floorshow, a ruckus is created and Nick's goons snatch the girl, taking her to Nick's apartment. Jane meets up with Eddie at the opium den, telling him that, while it's too late for her, he can still get rehabilitated, since he's only in the beginning stages of the addiction. Eddie goes back to the apartment he shares with Fanny, only to find that she has asphyxiated herself. He runs away. Jane goes to her apartment to find the girl prisoner there. The girl offers her a thousand dollars if she will help her escape. Jane calls the police. Nick returns home, and Jane shoots him. The police arrive and the girl's father is revealed to be the head of the narcotic racket.