Johnny Stool Pigeon

Johnny Stool Pigeon is a 1949 black-and-white film noir directed by William Castle. Tony Curtis, who made his movie debut that same year appearing in Criss Cross, has a non-speaking role as a mob gang member. "Stool pigeon", in gangster terminology, means a police informant. A narcotics agent convinces a convict he helped send to Alcatraz go undercover with him to help expose a heroin drug smuggling ring. The unlikely pair travels from San Francisco to Vancouver and finally to a dude ranch in Tucson which is run by mob bosses. They end up getting help breaking the case from the gang leader's dingy blonde girlfriend (Winters), who falls for the narcotics agent during the sting.