Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure

Alan Lloyd is a compulsive gambler who has accumulated heavy debts and is hunted by shady employers. Facing inevitable trouble, he is forced to flee to avoid capture. The pursuit introduces the tension that drives the early part of the story.

Charlie O'Brien, an actor, is hired to advertise a jam and begins a long promotional boat trip. The job promises exposure and payment, launching him into an adventurous voyage.

Alan, still on the run, hides aboard Charlie's boat behind his back. When he is discovered, the two men clash and their fates become entwined.

After the discovery, a fight breaks out and they tumble from the boat into the sea. They wash ashore on a remote Pacific island, initially believing they are stranded in a deserted place.

They soon realize the island is inhabited and begin to familiarize themselves with the locals. A welcome party arrives to greet them, unaware that pirates watch the island from afar.

A group of pirates arrives each year to seize natives for sale as slaves, though they do not know Alan and Charlie are on the island. After a confrontation filled with punches, the pirates are driven off.

The natives celebrate and form a tentative peace with an old Japanese general who still believes World War II is not over. The general receives Alan and Charlie in his fort and shows them a hidden stash of money stolen from the U.S. Navy.

Charlie becomes overwhelmed with joy and secretly steals the entire stash. The general later confides to Alan that the money is fake, revealing a fraud behind the apparent treasure.

Charlie plans to depart on an old plane, but pirates return with greater force and a surrounding group of criminals who had clashed with Alan earlier. The natives are captured and humiliated, heightening the island's danger.

Alan and Charlie return, fly in with the plane, and launch a fierce battle against the attackers. They defeat them and restore a fragile peace to the island amid blows and punches.

Alan and Charlie are rescued by the crew of the USS Forrestal and hand the money to the Navy, only to be told that it is real. The government later spreads the tale that the money was fake to keep the Japanese from spending it, and the heroes are hailed as champions though they receive no wealth.

They end up with no money, but a hand-made idol gifted by the natives is donated to a museum. In the final scene, the idol sits in a museum with a card claiming it is worth a fortune, while Alan and Charlie work as janitors and secretly plot to steal it.