The Nickel Ride on AllMovie

The events leading up to the death of a small-time Los Angeles hood provides the basis of this gripping crime drama. The doomed gangster is known as the "key man" because he manages several warehouses containing oodles of pilfered loot. They mobsters have stolen so much that they are running out of space and so desperately need more storage units. They send the fellow out to negotiate for more space, but this takes time. His boss gets nervous and believing the big-hearted "key man" to be more of a risk than an asset orders him carefully watched and ultimately destroyed.