Don Reilly, a Los Angeles newspaper reporter in 1949, recently married to Margie, a photographer employed by the same newspaper, stumbles upon the fact that gangsters are forcing butcher shops to sell their unlicensed beef, and he persuades his managing editor to allow him to follow up on the story. His bride goes with him on an investigation that leads him to the ranch hideout of the gang, who are rustling cattle using fast, refrigeration trucks. In order to investigate a modern-day cattle rustling operation, a newspaper reporter and his girlfriend infiltrate the gang. Cowboy star Don Barry does not entirely forsake the wide open spaces as he plays a newlywed reporter who has a story fall into his lap as his wife Margia Steele takes a picture accidentally of some thugs leaving a butcher shop after roughing up the owner. They invade home and hearth of Barry and Steele to get the telltale photograph before it's developed.<br/><br/>It'a a one in a million shot that Barry just happens to be a reporter, but even newlywed domestic bliss doesn't deter him from his reporter's instincts. They go undercover to the ranch where the source of the rustling is.<br/><br/>That's what it is, plain and simple, cattle rustling like you've seen in hundreds of B westerns. But here it has a modern twist. The gang has several branches, the rustlers who use a ranch as a front for the cattle they steal. A slaughterhouse which we never see, but obviously has to be there. Finally on the city's mean streets, thugs are strong arming butcher's to take their uninspected meat just like in the days of Prohibition.<br/><br/>The movie moves quickly, but the story isn't well plotted out. And for comic purposes they have Sid Melton as a not too bright crook on the cattle ranch end with his 'girl' Iris Adrian who is two timing him with Marc Lawrence. Barry and Steele play Melton like a piccolo. <br/><br/>Though their places in the film are rather forced, I'm glad Adrian and Melton are there. They lend a bit of humor to an otherwise tedious noir film. This movie is about a reporter and his photographer wife who accidentally become involved with a vicious gang of modern day cattle rustlers! Oddly, this gang is more like organized crime and the couple see a potential story if they can infiltrate them. The trouble is, and this makes the film a bit silly, is that the leaders of the gang know who they are–so taking up with some of their lower level gang members seemed awfully risky and was destined to be discovered. Still, the story was moderately interesting.<br/><br/>This film can be found on the DVD "Forgotten Noir Double Feature Vol. 5: FBI Girl / Tough Assignment". FBI GIRL and TOUGH ASSIGNMENT were made by Lippert Productions, a small-time Hollywood film company. Unlike FBI GIRL, TOUGH ASSIGNMENT looked very low budget and cheap. It also suffered from sub-par writing, as the film oddly couldn't decide if it wanted to be a serious crime drama or a comedy–as it had BOTH in the film! That's because veteran low-budget comedian Sid Melton ("Alf Monroe" from GREEN ACRES) is one of the gang members–though anyone with half a brain would question this. He's very small, makes wise-cracks and one-liners CONSTANTLY and seems about as threatening as a cheeze puff!! Why they stuck this guy in what should have been a hard-bitten crime drama is beyond me–and this makes the film just another B-picture.
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355 weeks ago