Ride the Pink Horse

Lucky Gagin arrives in San Pablo, a small New Mexico town, in the middle of the fiesta and immediately feels the sting of danger. He explains that he intends to blackmail Frank Hugo to avenge his friend Shorty's death. He crafts a plan around an incriminating check as leverage, aware the festival will complicate his moves.

To secure leverage, he places the incriminating check in a locker and hides the key behind a framed map in the bus depot waiting room. He struggles to find a room because of the fiesta crowds, leaving him dependent on chance. This marks the fragile start of his scheme against Hugo.

Unable to secure a room, Gagin is taken to the La Fonda Hotel by Pila, who also lends him a charm she says will protect him. The charm hints at superstition in the otherwise blunt plot. They form an uneasy alliance as the fiesta rages outside.

Gagin sneaks toward Hugo's hotel room and knocks out Jonathan, Hugo's private secretary. In the lobby, FBI agent Bill Retz confronts him and orders him to drop the plan, signaling official scrutiny over Hugo. The encounter raises the stakes as the hunt for truth intensifies.

Gagin enters Cantina de las Tres Violetas and is the only non-Hispanic patron, drawing curious glances. The barkeep can't make change for his twenty, but Pancho resolves it by proposing that Gagin buy drinks for everyone. The gesture earns Pancho's hospitality and a ride back to the tiovivo.

Gagin stays at Pancho's tiovivo, where Pila eventually arrives and sleeps in a seat beside the carousel. Retz warns that as soon as Gagin can be found, so will the town's tougher elements. The night tightens the pressure on both sides as danger closes in.

The next morning Gagin returns to the La Fonda and meets Hugo, who now wears a hearing aid. Gagin explains the incriminating check, and they agree to meet that evening at the Tip Top Cafe, where Hugo will pay thirty thousand dollars for the check. The arrangement sets up the next confrontations.

After lunch with Pila, Marjorie Lundeen arrives with a scheme to shake Hugo down for more money, but Gagin refuses to participate. He retrieves the check from the bus depot and threads his way toward the Tip Top Cafe as the fiesta crowds press in. Hugo, waiting at the cafe, says the bank messenger with the money will be late.

Marjorie invites Gagin to dance and then lures him into a dark alley where there is no messenger. Two toughs jump him, and one stabs him in the shoulder, signaling that danger has closed in. Retz arrives on the scene and begins to piece together the web around Hugo.

Retz discovers the ambush and confronts Hugo at the dining table, forcing a tense standoff between law and crime. Pila finds the wounded Gagin and helps him back toward safety as the night compounds the stakes. The check remains the coveted leverage at the core of everyone’s plans.

Gagin, hidden from immediate danger, is aided by Pila as two more assailants close in on the tiovivo. Locke and Marjorie Lundeen pursue them, but Pila knocks Locke out with a bottle to shield their escape. They slip away toward Pancho and the relative safety of the carousel's surroundings.

Gagin returns to the La Fonda, where Pila finds him outside Hugo's room and they are brought inside by Hugo's enforcers. Hugo, Marjorie, and Jonathan question him about the location of the check, but Gagin cannot recall. Retz arrives, disarms the attackers, and ultimately extracts the check from Gagin.

At breakfast the next day with Retz, Gagin refuses to eat and is told to say goodbye to Pila and Pancho. He returns the charm to Pila, who basks in the attention of her group as Retz and Gagin prepare to leave. Pila remains a central figure in the locals' memories of the adventure.