Conflict

The film opens with Humphrey Bogart as Richard Mason and Rose Hobart as his wife Kathryn. They're getting ready to go to a party but there's tension in the air as they squabble together. She brings up his "ridiculous infatuation with Evelyn", her sister. He find himself in love with her. "One of those things that can't be helped." But she makes it clear she has no intention of divorce or leaving him or anything. In fact, she's rather cold about it all. Not a good setup there. Well, they go to their party and it's hosted by Sydney Greenstreet as Dr. Mark Hamilton. After dinner the guests all have a toast to their 5 year anniversary, then Dr. Hamilton rambles on about how difficult it is to achieve a successful marriage. Charles Drake is there as Prof. Norman Holsworth, Evelyn's love interest. Richard seems to be in a gloomy mood, but he lights up when Evelyn starts sharing her theories about love and romance. So driving home, he, Kathryn, and Evelyn in the back seat. He's distracted, checking her out in the rear view mirror when, "look out!" crash! Followed by a sequence of floating head flashbacks. Richard wakes in a hospital, and he has only a broken leg. Kathryn and Evelyn are both ok as well. He's soon home, and the doctor visits to check on his leg in a cast. He leaves, and Richard apologies to Kathryn for his recent behavior. She replies with, "It's funny how virtuous a man can be when he's helpless." Well, Richard has some unexpected business to take care of and can't take a trip so he tells Kathryn to just go alone. Plenty of tension between the two still. "Be sure and drive slowly... some of those mountain roads can be dangerous." She stops to see Dr. Hamilton and asks him to check in on Richard while she's away. Then she takes her trip, driving around the mountains, then encounters a part of the road blocked by another car. When she sees a man in the shadows she asks him to move the car. Then sees, it's Richard! Walking towards her with his cane, and e kills her off-screen, then rolls her car down the hill in a fairly impressive car crash effect for the 40's. And man, I mean a car crash is bad enough, but having a couple dozen logs come tumbling down on the car too. Back at his house Richard has his engineering friend over to work on some blueprints, and he repeatedly calls the location where his wife was supposed to be. He makes a call to the police and shortly after detectives arrive to gather information. Dr. Hamilton is there as well to give information. Patrick O'Moore is Det. Lt. Egan, asking questions of what happened. Well, he goes to visit with Evelyn and talks about Kathryn, and how she thought she was acting peculiar before she vanished. Dr. Hamilton shows up for a visit, and soon the police call. They found a clue of a missing ring, but still haven't found Kathryn. At the police station Richard and Evelyn are there as they question the homeless guy who found her ring, but that seems like a dead end in their search. Dr. Hamilton suggests that Richard come and stay at his cabin, and Richard agrees and suggests Evelyn goes as well. The doctor agrees and Richard brings Evelyn home. Back at his house, Richard is suspicious and thinks he smells the perfume of his wife, and he asks Phillip the servant (Edwin Stanley) if anyone had been there and he says no. He's about to go to bed when he discovers: her key on a book? He's even able to find the wedding ring his wife had. He calls the detective to let him know that someone had brought those things. Well, we cut to the cabin where Richard and Evelyn are by the doc fishing. Dr. Hamilton returns from his fishing trip on his boat. While walking back, Richard sees a stack of wood for a bonfire, suspiciously like the jumble of logs that crushed his wife's car. The doctor has invited Norman out as well, the guy interested in Evelyn, and they go dancing while Richard sits with the doctor watching them. He's told there's a call for him, but when he goes to answer, there's no one there. He asks the receptionist who it was, and she thought the caller said "Mrs. Mason". Back at his table, Dr. Hamilton talks about murder and the perfect crime and we start to wonder if he's suspicious. Evelyn and Norman go for a walk. He's talking marriage, but she's not ready. Richard shows up, saying that it's cold outside and she "needs a wrap". Norman goes to get one and Richard tells her that she won't marry him because she has feeling for him. "You feel about me the way I feel for you", he says. She denies it, Norman shows up, and she leaves abruptly. A little later she seeks him out and asks him what he meant, and he confesses his love for her. She doesn't feel the same way though. He gets a kerchief for her to dry her eyes and... its monogrammed with Kathryn. Richard goes to talk to the detective again and plays up that she was murdered and her body was found, or she was kidnapped. He leaves in anger, then returns to work where, apparently he's received a letter that perfectly matches his wife's handwriting. A record store across the street starts playing their song too. He closes the window in annoyance then opens the letter. It contains only the address of a pawn shop. So he goes to it and meets with the pawn broker (Oliver Blake) and redeems the ticket, which gets him the heart locket of his wife. When asked who pawned it, he checks the book and it was Mrs. Richard Mason! The broker describes what she looked like, green suit, hat with feather, all the stuff that matched up. He leaves and comes back with the detective, but a different broker is there now (Harlan Briggs), and when asked, there is no gold locket. No lockets, and no partner. This guy works alone. "are you sure this is the right place?" says the detective and Richard is sure. Even the ledger book is different! Richard goes and gets the handwriting of the letter analyzed and is told it's the same thing. Back at his house, he goes investigating for stationary of his wife, and finds it all gone. The butler Phillip makes an interesting observation that he noticed that Evelyn wore what seemed to be the same perfume. Richard leaves to go back to the lodge, where he finds out that Evelyn is leaving, but she left him a letter. He notices the stationary looks the same, as does the handwriting. He offers to give her a ride to the station. She gives the ominous caution of, "do drive carefully, this mountain roads are so dangerous." But before they go far, he's summoned back for a phone call. It's Dr. Hamilton, and he says that the handwriting from his wife's letter was analyzed, and it was most definitely from her. Outside of the phone Richard speaks with Norman, who Evelyn has "friend zoned" and he's taking it hard. He encourages Norman to go speak with her again. Later, Richard is buying some luggage in the city, when out the window he sees what looks like his wife, with the same feather in the hat. He follows her into a building, and knocks on her door. The building owner sees him, he asks who went in the room, and she tells him that no one lives there, it's for rent. He asks to look inside and finds the room empty. He demands to know where his wife is, that he saw her go in, but she says no one was there. As he rambles on about the murder she yells and he departs. He goes to visit with Dr. Hamilton again, this time for a psychiatric visit, and tells him that he doesn't believe in ghosts, and yet he saw Kathryn, followed her and witnessed her vanishing into an empty house. Dr. Hamilton postulates some weird ideas like amnesia or sleep-walking, but continues to press Richard to reveal everything. The doctor can't help him, but when asked if anything of a mental case like this had happened before, the doctor tells him only once, regarding a man who had murdered his wife. Richard returns to the murder scene, parks, and walks down to the scene of the crash. He gets to the car, flashes his light, and sees no body. But then from the other window, he sees Dr. Hamilton, along with a bunch of police, there to arrest him. They reveal that they took the body away, a police woman had impersonated his wife. Dr. Hamilton reveals that Richard had slipped up when he mentioned the rose his wife was wearing, that he couldn't have known about. As the police take him away, he says, "It's all over, the end, Doctor."