Bribe, The

The Bribe starts with a storm and ends with fireworks -- fitting bookends for a crime thriller full of passion, greed and double crosses. The story revolves around a war-surplus racket operated from an island off the Central American coast, where federal agent Robert Taylor runs into the only thing steamier than the weather: Ava Gardner. World-wise, world-weary and fabulous looking, Taylor and Gardner epitomize noir sex appeal. And the consummate actors playing the villains couldn't be more adept at oozing evil. Vincent Price portrays the suave criminal mastermind and Charles Laughton is his henchman, a sweaty wharf rat.

• crime
• drama
• thriller