Summaries

Synopsis

A high-brow detective attempts to stop crooks from running an insurance scam.

Renowned Lady's man and amateur sleuth Gay Laurence AKA The Falcon (George Sanders) is going to forsake chasing dames and solving crimes for the sake of his fiancée Elinor Benford (Nina Vale). To please Elinor he and his sidekick Jonathan G. "Goldie" Locke (Allen Jenkins) agree to open a brokerage firm on Wall Street, but when Elinor asks him to go to a swanky soiree hosted by Maxine Wood (Gladys Cooper) to mingle with potential clients Gay refuses and after one day on Wall Street is ready for retirement. Gay returns home from the office to find the beautiful Helen Reed (Wendy Barrie) waiting to see him. Helen is the secretary of Wood and on her employer's behalf invites The Falcon to the same party Elinor wanted him to go to. She goes on to explain that some of Wood's parties have been plagued by jewel thefts and Maxine is particularly concerned about a diamond owned by Mrs Vera Gardner (Lucile Gleason) one of the guests. Unable to resist Gay accompanies Elinor to the party while instructing Goldie to infiltrate the event too.

However, Elinor becomes angry when she realises why Gay changed his mind about attending the party and retaliates by dancing with one of the other guests Manuel Retana (Turhan Bey). In frustration, she grabs the flower from Retana's lapel and flings it at Gay. He calmly picks it up and attaches it to his lapel. Gardner then insists on dancing with Gay and while they are dancing she hands him her diamond secretly. Her action puzzles Gay greatly but before he can ask her about it she leaves the room. Moments later, a shot rings out, and she falls to the floor dead. The killer is seen by Goldie as he makes his getaway. Unfortunately, when the police arrive Detectives Bates (Edward Brophy) and Grimes (Eddie Dunn) arrest Goldie as a material witness as he was the only person in the room where Mrs Gardner was killed. Gay follows Goldie to the police station where he speaks to Inspector Mike Waldeck (Arthur Shields) and manages to convince him to release Goldie to act as bait to lure the killer out into the open.

Helen meets them at the station and the three of them head off to Maxine's apartment to question her. They leave Goldie waiting in the car but while they are with Maxine, Goldie is snatched from the car by the killer Noel Weber (Damian O'Flynn). Gay tells Maxine that he suspects that Mrs Gardner was involved with a gang of jewel thieves led by Retana. Meanwhile, Weber takes Goldie to a nearby pinball parlour and orders him to phone The Falcon and make him an offer - the diamond for Goldie's life. As Goldie begins dialling the number a shot is fired and Weber falls down dead and when the police arrive they find Goldie with a dead body for the second time and re-arrest him. The Falcon returns home where Bates tells him that Goldie is once again being held on suspicion of murder and that Waldeck wants to speak to Gay back at Headquarters. Gay manages to give Bates the slip and the following day, while disguised as a tramp, he tries to apologise to Elinor who is furious because he left with Helen. She icily informs him that she has a date with Retana later that evening and never wants to see Gay again.

By this point, Gay suspects Gardner must have arranged to have her diamond "stolen" so she could collect on the insurance. The flower was a signal, indicating to whom Gardner was to give the jewel. It should have been Retana but Elinor throwing it at Gay upset the scheme. Suspicious of Retana, Gay and Helen break into his apartment, but when he returns unexpectedly halfway through their search they are forced to hide outside on the patio. They observe Retana as he checks a secret compartment hidden behind a wall panel. Once Retana leaves Gay reaches behind the panel and finds the gun that killed Weber. Gay goes to the city morgue to examine the body of Weber and recognises him as the man pictured with Retana in a photograph he found during the search of his apartment. Meanwhile, as the police interrogate Goldie, Helen bursts in and confesses to Weber's murder and presents the Detectives with the gun from Retana's place. Once the police have identified the weapon as being that that killed Weber, Helen tells them all about Retana and tells them to go to the club where he is due to dine with Elinor. Gay phones Elinor at the club to warn her that the police are coming to pick up her host, but she thinks that Gay is trying to frame Retana because he is jealous so she warns him that the police are on their way. When The Falcon returns to his home he finds an armed Retana has tied up his manservant Jerry (Willie Fong) and is demanding the diamond, but when Helen unexpectedly appears at the door Retana thinks it is the police and flees.

Meanwhile, back at the club Bates has arrested Elinor for obstruction and when she phones Gay from the police station he instructs Waldeck to meet him at Maxine Wood's apartment. There Maxine tells them that her life has been threatened, prompting Gay and Waldeck to promise to stay the night to protect her. Maxine retires for the night while the two guard her bedroom door, but Retana slips in through the bedroom window and threatens her. Gay and Waldeck break into the room but before they can get to Retana he collapses to the floor dead with a hypodermic needle laying by his side. Mike assumes he has committed suicide but Gay sees Maxine try to crush the hypo with her foot in order to destroy any fingerprint evidence. The Falcon declares that Maxine killed Retana, that she was married to Weber and the three of them comprised the jewellery theft ring. He goes on to explain that when she and Weber tried to double-cross Retana, he killed Weber and was about to do the same to her before she killed him with the hypodermic needle. Waldeck is amazed at how The Falcon has come to that conclusion but Gay explains that he was tipped off when Goldy was snatched from the car outside Maxine's apartment as she was the only person who could have known where he was at that exact moment and thus she must have been involved with the ring.

They then all return to the police station where they release Elinor, but just as she is about to forgive Gay an attractive young woman arrives and asks The Falcon for his help in solving another crime.