***SPOILERS*** Feeling that he has every right to sail his new boat into Long Island Sound so that he and his wife Abbie,Ruth McDveitt, can go out and enjoy themselves retired postal worker Tom Dobbins, James Barton,finds out that the draw bridge leading into the sound has been closed since 1935 as well as inoperable! That's since a major railroad company bought up the property that the bridge is on and built a railroad line over it! With Tom breaking his chops in getting the draw bridge open and having his company pay, according to the documented evidence he has, as much as $10,000.00 a month if he doesn't railroad CEO Herbert B. Warick, Albert Dekker, sends two of his executives Banning & Grainger, Dan Tobin & Fred Clark,to try to buy off Dobbins in order to pacify him. And if that doesn't work then have them threaten to have him arrested and thrown behind bars, and his home and boat confiscated, on a number of trumped up charges.
Not realizing whom their messing with, a man very capable of going postal, Dobbins counterattacks with a number of iron clad documents not only proving his innocence against what Warick & Co. charged him with but in having them tired in civil court for undo harassment of a not only retired government worker but a WWI US Army veteran! With his back now against the wall and Dobbin not giving him a inch or any breathing space a frustrated Warick now unleashes his top gun New york shyster lawyer Donald Chavers, Horse Jameson, to really turn the screws on him. Chavers plans in bankrupting Dobbins, who's government pension is abut $250.00 a month, in the courts by appealing and re-appalling any unfavorable decision against his client Hrbert B. Warwick until Dobbins ends up, win lose or draw, flat broke.
***SPOILERS*** As it soon turned out Dobbins wasn't exactly the easy mark that Warick thought he was. It just happened that his dad was close friends with one the best defense lawyer in the country who just happens to be Dobbins' next door neighbor Jack S. Moreland, Joseph Sweeney. With Moreland taking up Dobbins' case Pro Bono, for free, Warick as well as his high priced lawyer Chavers knew that they were licked and up against it and thus quickly headed for the exits. It was in fact Dobbins who showed to Warick & co. far more class they they showed to him in wanting Warwick to rehired, as part of the deal he makes with him, the two "hit-men" Banning and Grainger that Warick had fired for not getting the job done for him! Something that if the shoe was on the other foot Warick would never have dreamed of doing!
P.S We also have a sort of comedy relief like side story having to do with NYPD Detective Arcaro, Harry Bellaver, getting his head bashed in when a suspect in his custody escaped from the Tombs Detention Center because he forgot to have him handcuffed! It was later that Det. Arcaro and about a half dozen policemen caught the escapee, a Simon Flaxman, in a deserted wear-house using a water cannon!