Big Jim McLain (1952)

House Un-American Activities Committee investigators Jim McLain and Mal Baxter come to Hawaii to track Communist Party activities. They are interested in everything from insurance fraud to the sabotage of a U.S. naval vessel.

After receiving useful information from a reporter named Briggs, the agents begin searching for Willie Nomaka, a party treasurer, who allegedly has experienced a nervous breakdown and has been seeing Dr. Gelster, a psychiatrist. The doctor's secretary, Nancy Vallon, is helpful as well. She is a widow; McLain asks her on a date, and a romance develops.

Nomaka's landlady, Madge, assists in the investigation, flirting with McLain. Nomaka's ex-wife also helps him. He is eventually found to be staying in a sanitarium, heavily drugged and unable to speak.

Party leader Sturak gives orders to Dr. Gelster to get rid of him. Gelster also kills McLain's partner, Baxter, by mistake with an injection of truth serum.

As the investigators close in, Sturak attempts to make Gelster confess to his party membership so the case can be closed and so others can continue their nefarious work. Their meeting is interrupted by McLain who instigates a brawl. Police arrive to place party leaders under arrest, but ultimately he and Nancy Vallon see them plead the Fifth Amendment and go free.