Sports betting and the ever-present possibility of "shaving" points (or, simply, under-performing), especially in a basketball game, exist today as much as they did in 1951. The movie demonstrates it well enough. But the movie stops short of completing the morality play.

However, a few scripting/editing bugs: Ireland's tormented performance, Vanessa Brown's (the girlfriend) appearance out of nowhere with full-on infatuation with Johnny and her over-the-top toothy smile, the wasted Hazel Brooks' character, the jeweler's Nazi-like reaction to an erstwhile innocent's attempt at anonymity and the coach's spectator-ish involvement in the games led to a lower rating.

Also, Johnny was obviously trying to hide his paper trail when buying the ring, so why did he use an alias that conflicted with the inscription in the ring? Surely, he would have figured that out and used an alias with the same initials. But then, why not have the ring purchased by someone else? I guess, in either case, more plot development (and more cost) would have been prohibitive.

Finally, the only "noir-ish" thing about the film was the B&W format.

The reason I did not remove the stuff at the ending is because I did not feel as if it would hurt anything, if you did not want to watch that then just simply stop the movie after the initial movie ends.

It had a Noirish touch to me, maybe some other opinions could vary on that topic.

UPDATE - DOOWOP BOB, LAY OFF THE PIPE!!! YOU BIG BABOON!

Great little B film about the criminal element invading big-time sports. Could easily be made today, only substitute the NCAA for the local police. Has the noir touches of good guy being corrupted, organized crime influence, and narration, so it fits into the film noir category. Would have been nice to see how Johnny made out in the justice system - does he cop a plea and turn on his teammate and fixer Mike Taft, or does he get the max, whatever that may be?

I type this as VCU just lost to Butler in the Final Four, so I suppose it was apropos to watch this movie.

I thought it was pretty good, doowop! one mans meat etc, i'm probably bias'd as i like John Ireland, aqggree with Nikonwilly and fair comment Jeff, if ya dont want to see the cr@p at the end hit the stop button, thanks for the upload,

...I Wish people would'nt upload these dollar store films, Theres a reason it's a buck, It sucks..!..Ihave this "film" Roadkill..Ireland was just paying his bar tab..!

Thought it was funny there was never any mention about his "school work load" ...busy stamping x-mas packages and practice hitting hoops , but when did he study...guess it showed that college sports was the same then as now..a scholarship meant you were in for the sport and ,"we'll over look the grades"....
Great flick and fantastic acting otherwise. A decent story with just enough morals to round it off and make it still believable. Compared to some B movie budgets this was a winner.

I completely agree with you Sky, the ending needs to be trimmed...

As for crackhead Doowopbob, why don't you just jump off a cliff and make everybody on here happy kk?

You should ALWAYS trim out the advertising portions of the film because that part CAN be copyrighted. It could cause some uptight bozo to get a lawyer and sue AI, or at least YOU. Pretty unlikely, but the world's full of people with too much money and not enough sense.

I don't know it was to much noir to it, but it could have lived without the junk at the end from the DVD production company. The basketball players didn't look like they ever so much as broke a sweat in any of the games.. Looked more like a game of pickup around the world with a bunch of sedated half zombies than a national championship game and the writing was just to clipped as if they were really pressed for time to make it a short film..