Why is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?

Promoter Frankie Christopher, being grilled by police in the murder of model Vicky Lynn, recalls in flashback: First meeting her as a waitress, Frankie decides to parlay her beauty into social acceptance and a lucrative career. He succeeds only too well: she's on the eve of deserting him for Hollywood...when someone kills her. Now Frankie gets the feeling that Inspector Ed Cornell is determined to pin the killing on him and only him. He's right. And the only one he can turn to for help is Jill, the victim's sister, who's been cool toward him...—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>

"Big Ed" Cornell, a police inspector/detective, with an unmatched record of convictions and a man who believes 'in justice', deliberately allows the murderer of Vicky Lynn, former-waitress turned aspiring-Hollywood-starlet, his freedom, while "Big Ed" leaves no stone unturned in trying to pin the killing on Frankie Christopher, a sports promoter who has more than one business going at all times, usually self-promotion. "Big Ed" stalks his victim like a bird-of-prey, and makes no secret that he will put Frankie on the 'hot spot,", the electric chair. (When this film was previewed at the Twentieth Century-Fox projection room in New York City, on October 18, 1941, for the industry trade-press, the title of the film was "Hot Spot." When it had its national first-release, on October 31, 1941, the title had been changed to the title of the novel it was based on.)—Les Adams <[email protected]>

When the model Vicky Lynn is found murdered in her apartment in New York, the promoter of sports Frankie Christopher becomes the prime suspect of Inspector Ed Cornell and is brought to the precinct for interrogatory. Christopher discloses how he promoted the career of Vicky when she was a waitress after making a bet with his friends Robin Ray and Larry Evans. After reaching the stardom, Vicky tells Christopher that she would leave him to go to Hollywood and on the next day, she was killed. Ed Cornell insists that Christopher is the killer and frames him, and Christopher can only have the support of Vicky's sister, Jill Lynn, who has fallen in love with him. Who Killed Vicki?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Vicky Lynn, New York society's current "it" girl, has just been found murdered in her apartment by her manager, Frankie Christopher, and her sister, Jill Lynn. Frankie, generally a sports promoter, discovered Vicky working as a waitress in a diner, and, in addition to her beauty and poise, was able to make her a "name" and "face" with the help of actor Robin Ray, on the downside of his career, and newspaper columnist Larry Evans. Inspector Ed Cornell with the NYPD makes himself assigned to the case, he with the reputation of his gut instinct being right, he able to get his man, either put behind bars or to have them hang themselves, literally or figuratively. His gut instinct tells him that Frankie is the killer, not only because Jill was the one who walked into her and Vicky's shared apartment to find him there with Vicky already dead, but because Vicky was just on the verge of leaving him behind with Hollywood calling. Despite this evidence and one other key piece which she doesn't divulge to the police, Jill doesn't believe Frankie guilty. Although, as the practical sister, she didn't much like what Frankie was doing to Vicky, Jill, in spending time with him, has fallen in love with Frankie. Jill decides to help Frankie evade Cornell when it looks as if Cornell is moving in for the kill. Jill and Frankie, as such, have to find out who did kill Vicky, and why Cornell is so fixated on him as the killer, especially as others in the police department want him to broaden his perspective as other evidence comes to light.—Huggo