Jerry Cotton (film)

[2] In NYC, FBI agent and workaholic Jerry Cotton is in a warehouse, restrained with chains on a conveyer belt and rolling toward an industrial pound cutter, while his partner is tied up and suspended upside down from the high ceiling.

Cotton is able to cut the chains with the cutter, take down most of the gang, and save the girl from a fall from a catwalk, but his partner crashes down to the ground.

Serrano was an important figure in the New York underworld and outsourced many jobs to third parties, which meant that he himself remained unrecognized - which is why he was called the Puppet Master .

Cotton pursued him years ago because of a famous heist known as the United States Union Gold Robbery, but the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Unfortunately, he cannot investigate in his usual lone wolf style because the head of the department, Mr. High, assigns a new colleague, Phil Decker.

The entire FBI, especially its boss Mr. High and the internal affairs investigator Daryl Zanuck, turn against Jerry Cotton and search the city for him.

Now without 105 hours sleep, Cotton begins to lose confidence and he seeks help from Phil Decker, who is about to leave the FBI office.

They are preparing to follow the gang when Zanuck and her crew arrive, having realized Decker was the lounge singer and had smuggled Cotton into the hotel.

He and Decker are able to follow the gang to a bar known also as "The Dead End" because paroled felons frequent there - many having been arrested by Cotton.

They narrowly escape pursuing parolees bent on revenge and discover the gang is about to execute Malena, accusing her of leading Cotton to them.

Cotton and Decker escape, with the parolees hot on their trail, until they are able to trick the bad guys into shooting up two mannequins disguised as them.

After loading the gold into trunks of cars already cleared by customs for the late Serrano, the gang discover Decker is in disguise.

Malena gets away and, after getting out of the handcuffs, Cotton joins Decker in the customs warehouse where they find the dead gang piled into the back of a Rolls-Royce.

Someone starts shooting at them, and taking cover behind a statue podium, they discover that Zanuck has been the one who murdered the Serrano and taken over his position as the puppet master.

In Mr. High's office there is also a picture of George Nader (the American star of the sixties film series), and Jerry's new Jaguar XKR has the license plate JC 1954 - the year in which the first novel was published.