George Kennedy plays a tough San Diego police sergeant who quits the force when his wife is killed. He becomes a priest, and is assigned to a parish in his old precinct. Champing at the bit, "Sarge", as the priestly Kennedy is known to his friends, offers his investigative talents to the local constabulary. Sarge gets down to business immediately by solving a tricky homicide case. Badge or the Cross was the pilot film for George Kennedy's subsequent TV series Sarge, which ran for a single season in 1971-72. The film was originally titled Sarge: The Badge or the Cross, and has sometimes been telecast simply as Sarge.