Club Havana

Edgar G. Ulmer directed this film about a number of different characters unfolding love, hate, and death problems during an evening in a fashionable Latin nightclub. Following a Reno divorce from her abusive, alcoholic husband, Rosalind rushes home to Miami to meet her boyfriend, Johnny Norton, at the Club Havana, a Latin-flavored nightclub. At the same locale, Lucy, a struggling young model, is dining with her date, Dr. Bill Porter, an intern, while Clifton Rogers, a noted but penniless promoter, has a business dinner with the wealthy Mrs. Cavendish and her family. Jimmy Medford, the pianist boyfriend of Club Havana singer Isabelita, becomes conscience-stricken when he learns that Joe Reed, a local gambler, has been released from police custody for lack of evidence in the murder of Julia Dumont, a performer at the club. Though Jimmy saw the gambler leaving Julia's apartment at the time of the murder, he is reluctant to go to the police, as both he and Isabelita fear Joe's retribution. Later, Mrs. Cavendish agrees to finance Rogers' projects once he consents to marry her, while Johnny breaks Rosalind's heart by telling her that he is in love with another woman. Rosalind then attempts suicide by swallowing a handful of pills, but is saved by Bill. Meanwhile, the newly reconciled Kingstons, an older married couple, plan a romantic dinner at the club, but the two end up doing more arguing than romancing. Jimmy finally decides to call the police, but his phone call is listened in on by Myrtle, the club's telephone operator, who tells Joe of the pianist's actions. Joe then retains a hired killer to murder Jimmy, but the gunman shoots Myrtle instead after she yells a warning to Jimmy while driving away in her car. The gunman is then run over by the mortally wounded telephone operator. While Jimmy is taken to the police station to testify against Joe, Rosalind and Johnny reconcile and leave the nightclub together. —anonymous