Lucky and Andamo arrive in Florida by freighter after fleeing
Andamo's island nation. As they try to work out what to do next, they
notice a woman in a harem costume boarding a nearby yacht. A few seconds
later a man in a devil costume follows her and the two men approach
him. He assumes that they're wearing dockworker costumes and doesn't
have a problem when they follow him aboard the yacht.
Once
aboard, the two friends hit the buffet table for food. The daughter of
the host, Maggie Rutherford, and is intrigued by Lucky. She goes over to
him, introduces herself, and suggests that he dance with her in return
for the free meal. As they dance, Lucky explains that he's a gambler and
Maggie points out that he seems to be out of luck. She offers to find
him a job with her father, Julius, and explains that her father is
closing a deal to sell a mica mine in New Mexico. While they chat,
Andamo makes the acquaintance of a beatnik girl who decides to kiss him.
Maggie's father is on deck talking with a businessman, Edgar Bentley,
and convinces him to buy the mica mine to the tune of $500,000. Edgar's
wife comes over and asks her husband to dance. He turns her down but
Julius is glad to go out with her on the dance floor.
As Maggie
and Lucky dance, Maggie's mother comes over and introduces herself. She
asks her daughter for help with her costume and Maggie agrees after
half-jokingly warning Lucky that she'll turn the guards on him if he
tries to leave. As Lucky goes to find Andamo, he sees Julius come in
with Edgar's wife and recognizes the man. He goes over to chat with
Julius, greeting him as Julius Shank, and Julius that his last name is
Rutherford, not Shank. Julius quickly excuses himself while Lucky goes
back to the buffet table.
Three gangsters, 12th Street and his
two thugs, pull up at the dock and shove their way onboard. They run
into Julius as he tells a guard to throw Lucky off the boat. 12th Street
demands a private meeting and Julius reluctantly goes with him.
Meanwhile, Edgar joins the party and recognizes Lucky as the man who
owned the casino he once gambled at. They chat and Lucky assumes that
Edgar is Maggie's father when he mentions his interest in a mica mine.
He warns Edgar that Julius is Julius Shank, a notorious conman. When
Edgar explains that he toured the mica mine disguised as a geologist,
supposedly so that Julius' partner wouldn't know he was planning to
sell, Lucky explains that the mine wasn't Julius' to sell and the
disguise was so that Edgar wouldn't realize that the mine was owned by
the government.
In the study, Edgar asks 12th Street for three
more days to pay him off. The gangster figures that Julius will try to
skip town but the conman insists that he has a deal worked out to make
$500,000, and he rented the yacht and threw the costume party to make it
all seem convincing. 12th Street agrees to give Julius the three days
but puts another $5,000 in interest on top of the $85,000 that Julius
already owes him. The gangster warns Julius that if he doesn't pay up in
three days then something scary will happen to him.
As Edgar
thanks Lucky for warning him about Julius, Maggie comes over and Lucky
quickly realizes that her father is Julius, not Edgar. Edgar angrily
tells Maggie to say goodbye to her father on his behalf and walks away.
When she realizes that Lucky has screwed up her father's con, Maggie
slugs him and a guard finishes with a cosh to Lucky's head.
The
next morning, Lucky wakes up on the docks near the yacht and finds
Andamo unconscious next to him. A girl playing nearby says that she saw
them there but didn't want to help because she figured they were dead.
Andamo wakes up and explains that a guard knocked him out as well. A
group of creditors board the yacht and ask Maggie where her father is,
and she claims that he fell overboard and drowned. Thinking quickly,
Lucky comes over and, posing as the captain, ushers them all off the
yacht. Maggie is glad to play along to get rid of them, and Lucky then
goes to see Julius in his cabin. He complains that Lucky blew his big
con and that now 12th Street will come looking for the $85,000 in
gambling debts that Julius owes him. He owes another $15,000 for the
party and has no way to raise the $100,000 total. Lucky suggests he sell
the yacht and Julius admits that he tried but no one wants it. Maggie
suggests that they sail out of town but her father points out that he
doesn't even have enough money to afford diesel fuel for the yacht.
As Andamo comes in, Lucky asks the Shanks if they have clothes for him
and his friend. Mrs. Shank has clothing from her last husband for Lucky,
god rest his soul, and Julius has a tux that Andamo can use. Once
they're dressed, Lucky tells Maggie that he's going to pay 12th Street a
visit at his casino and make some money... even though he doesn't have
anything to gamble.
At the casino, Lucky bluffs his way into
12th Street's office, intimidating the guard. 12th Street knows Lucky as
a fellow casino owner and is less than thrilled to see him in town. He
warns Lucky that the Syndicate controls the town and that Lucky won't be
running anything, and Lucky assures him that he doesn't plan to run a
casino in the town. He asks for a $5,000 stake and 12th Street is glad
to give it to him as long as Lucky leaves the next morning. Lucky hits
the craps tables and bets the entire $5,000 on one roll. He wins and
keeps winning, and 12th Street soon gets word of Lucky's string of good
fortune. He goes out and signals the croupier to switch out the dice.
Andamo and Lucky spot the switch and Lucky immediately bets on snake
eyes, figuring the croupier gave him dice with the worst roll possible.
Lucky's instincts prove right and after collecting his winnings, he
leaves the table.
While Lucky cashes out his chips, Andamo goes
into the nearby restroom. Lucky then goes in and switches the money for
paper towels, and Andamo slips out the window with the money. Once his
partner is clear, Lucky leaves the casino and 12th Street's men accost
him in an alleyway. They discover they've been conned and, after a brief
fight, Lucky disposes of both of them
The next morning, 12th
Street and his men go to the dock to collect the money from Julius. He
immediately pays off the entire $85,000 and explains that he raised the
money by selling his yacht... to Lucky. Lucky is there with Andamo,
unloading gambling tables, and 12th Street reminds him that he promised
not to run a casino in town. Lucky tells him that he isn't: he's taking
the yacht three miles out into international waters. Disgusted at being
played, 12th Street leaves with his men. That night, he comes back and
confirms that Lucky's new yacht is off the coast. He watches as Lucky
and Andamo set up the casino's new sign: a flashing pair of dice with 7s
and 11s. Lucky sends Andamo off and then kisses an appreciative Maggie.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 3, 2018