Lucky Jordan

Lucky Jordan is a 1942 film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Alan Ladd in his first leading role, Helen Walker in her film debut and Sheldon Leonard. The screenplay concerns a self-centered gangster who tangles with Nazi spies. Plot During World War II, gangster Lucky Jordan is drafted and sent to a training base near his New York office. He avoids the rigors of boot camp, hiding in the unit's canteen. One of the attendants, Jill Evans, reports him to the base colonel and he's sent to the stockade. Jordan escapes by stealing an army engineer's car. Outside the camp, Jordan is run off the road by two thugs, but they flee when Jill happens onto the scene. Jordan forces Jill to accompany him to the city. She responds by angrily discarding a briefcase containing army documents. After sneaking back into his headquarters, Jordan learns from disloyal underling Slip that the two men he encountered outside the base were pursuing the briefcase Jill discarded. An enemy spy ring has offered $50,000 for it. After retrieving the briefcase and its information, Jordan orders Slip to arrange an exchange. Later, the thugs surprise Jordan, knock him unconscious, and run off with the papers. Jordan tracks the spy ring to a botanical preserve on Long Island where he finds Slip and a traitor named Kilpatrick holding the papers. Jordan grabs the documents and flees. The preserve's exits are immediately locked, but Jordan hides the papers and an explanatory note inside a man's umbrella. Jill, who has trailed Jordan to the preserve, asks a guard to use a phone to notify authorities of Jordan's location. The guard instead connects her to Kilpatrick, who deceives her by masquerading as a government agent, causing her to unwittingly assist in Jordan's capture. Herr Kesselman, the spy ring's chief, oversees an interrogation of Jordan, who is threatened with torture and quickly invents a story about the location of the papers. After he is left alone with Kesselman and a lone guard, Jordan grabs the guard's gun. He then tells Kesselman he will surrender the papers to the government out of a sense of new-found patriotism. The FBI arrives and nabs the entire ring. Jill tells Lucky he'll probably get a medal, but he is returned to the stockade to serve the remainder of his punishment.