Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock's last film is a hilarious romp that successfully combines mystery and humor. When a wealthy woman hires a phony psychic and a con man to find her missing heir, the results are diabolical, deadly, and laugh out loud funny! Essential viewing for all film fans, not just Hitchcock buffs! Featuring Academy Award nominees Karen Black, Bruce Dern, and Barbara Harris.

Grim yet distinctly humorous, this grisly thriller concerns a rapist-murderer who terrorizes modern London.

The story is set in 1962 and opens with images of a Soviet military parade on the Red Square in Moscow, USSR. In Copenhagen, Denmark, a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer defects to the West with his wife and daughter after a chase through the streets from the Soviet embassy to the US embassy. Upon arrival in Washington, DC, CIA agent Michael Nordstrom (John Forsythe) debriefs him and learns that Russian missiles are to be posted in Cuba. Nordstrom enlists the aid of his friend and French agent André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford), encouraging him to accompany his daughter Michèle (Claude Jade) on her honeymoon with journalist François Picard (Michel Subor) as a premise to get him to New York. André accepts, but his wife Nicole (Dany Robin) is worried for him. In New York City, André entrusts a familiar contact, a former French secret agent named Philippe Dubois (Roscoe Lee Browne), who currently runs a local flower shop in Harlem, to get hold of some seriously damaging papers concerning Soviet plans in Cuba from the visiting Cuban official Rico Parra (John Vernon playing a Fidel Castro-esq character). Parra is in New York to appear at the United Nations and stays at the Cuban consulate in Harlem at the local Hotel Theresa to show solidarity with "the masses". Dubois, taking the identity of a black journalist from Ebony, sneaks into the embassy (which is seething with visitors and surrounded by an enthusiastic mob), with a little help from a Cuban diplomat named Luis Uribe (Don Randolph), manages to take photos of some of the documents and then runs away, chased by Cuban revolutionaries. While cunningly dodging away, Dubois shams bumping into and overthrowing André Devereaux, who was watching events from the other side of the street, and slips the camera into his hand. A Cuban guard, named Hernandez (Carlos Rivas) helps André to get up, stares at him, and lets him go. Dubois manages to escape from his Cuban pursuers and returns to his job at working in his flower shop. After examining the photos, Devereaux confirms that the Soviets are secretly transporting and placing nuclear missiles in Cuba. Devereaux, unheeding of his wife's fear and jealousy, jets off to Cuba to find out more details. He catches up with his Cuban mistress Juanita de Cordoba (Karin Dor), widow to a former first-hour wealthy "hero of the Revolution", and herself now leader of the local underground resistance network: she acts undercover and collects information as Parra's lover. André, on arriving, finds Parra leaving Juanita's mansion. During a scene of intimacy in the mansion, Devereaux asks her to somehow take photos of the missiles as they are unloaded from Russian boats at the harbor. But Juanita's people, Mr. and Mrs. Mendoza, are arrested and tortured, while Parra's right hand man Hernandez, during a big mass rally held during a lengthy speech of the "leader màximo" recognizes André's face from the incident in front of the hotel. Parra, who has heard from the maimed and tortured Mrs. Mendoza that Juanita is their leader, leads a squad of Cuban soldiers to the mansion where he confronts Juanita and, hugging her in his arms, shoots her to save her from being tortured to death. In one of the film's most memorable shots, Juanita is seen from overhead, her dress spreading out on the floor like a bloodstain (although it is purple not red) on the big black-and-white pavement tiles, as she collapses. André is arrested is searched thoroughly at the Havana airport on departure, but the Cuban authorities are unable to find the carefully hidden microfilms, which provide crucial information for the CIA about Soviet activities in Cuba. André finds them hidden behind the cover of a book that Juanita gives him prior to leaving just before she is killed by Parra. At this point, the plot of the movie completely changes course. When André arrives back in Washington, he finds his home empty: his wife deserted him due to his Cuban love interest and returned to Paris. He is also recalled to Paris, but before he leaves, he is informed by Nordstrom about the existence of a Soviet spy organization called 'Topaz' within the French intelligence service. He is given the name of one certain member, NATO official Henri Jarré (Philippe Noiret), who leaked documents to the KGB. On arrival back in Paris, Andre attempts to get to the bottom of the leak, while his daughter Michèle wants to reconcile her parents. He invites some of his old friends and colleagues, including Jarré, to a lunch at a fine restaurant, "Chez Pierre". While Jarré eats, André tells the others about Topaz in order to provoke some reaction. Jarré answers that all this is a piece of misinformation, since he knows that the Russian official in fact died a year ago. But he begins to panic, and visits the man who is the leader of the spy ring, Jacques Granville (Michel Piccoli). But Granville, in his night gown, is "waiting for somebody". As Jarré is leaving Granville's house, a woman arrives. It is Nicole, André's wife, and as they kiss we see a photo on a stand: Devereaux, Nicole and Granville were old friends from their days together in the French Resistance. Devereaux sends his son-in-law François to interview and extract information out of Jarré. François calls Devereaux from Jarré's home, but the call is cut short. Devereaux and Michèle rush together to Jarré's flat, and find him dead having been thrown from his second floor window and landing on the roof of a parked car. François has disappeared. André and Michèle return to Nicole's, and a short time later François arrives: he was clubbed, but came to and managed to escape from his captors' car. He has overheard a phone number and shows a sketch of Jarré. Nicole, who was staring at the window then turns around and tells her family, with tearful eyes, that the phone number is Granville's, so he must be the leader of the "Topaz" organization. Devereaux goes to meet Agent Nordstrom and the Presidential entourage at Orly Airport, and to tell him about Granville. Nordstrom and company then tell the French they will brief them on the missiles in Cuba, but insist Granville not attend. The next morning, Devereaux and his wife, now obviously reconciled in mutual forgiveness, board a Pan Am flight back to Washington. And watch, she in revulsion, he in sardonic good humor, as Granville, bidding Devereaux "Bon voyage," boards an Aeroflot flight back to Moscow. "He never misses a trick," observes Devereaux. "But at least that's the end of Topaz." A few days later, the New York Herald-Tribune prints the news that Khruschev has agreed to dismantle the Cuban missile bases. An anonymous reader, sitting on a bench on l'Avenue des Champs-Élysées (with l'Arc de Triomphe in the background), reads the article. He then folds up the paper, sets it on the bench, and walks away. Note: The above is one of three endings for this film that Hitchcock shot. The DVD release has all three: 1. In which Granville boards a flight to Moscow in front of Devereaux, who shrugs and says, "Well, at least that's the end of Topaz." The final scene plays out as above. 2. In which, after the French authorities dismiss Granville from the meeting, we look down the street where Granville lives. A single shot rings out. We presume Granville has committed suicide. The final scene shows the headline about Khruschev withdrawing the missiles from Cuba, against a montage of those who lost their lives to achieve that result. But this time the passerby, instead of leaving the paper for others to read, puts it into a public trash basket. 3. In which Granville and Devereaux arrange and fight a duel with pistols. Granville, of course, loses when he is shot and killed by a Russian sniper who gets away. Devereaux claims that Granville was killed by his Russian handlers because he has outlives his usefullness to them. American TV networks, showing this film on their prime-time movie slots, typically showed the second ending. So also did various broadcast stations who acquired Topaz in syndication. But HDNet-TV, showing this film for its 2015 Alfred Hitchcock festival, showed the first ending.

Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), an esteemed American physicist and rocket scientist, is to attend a scientific conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He takes a cruise ship to Copenhagen along with his assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews). Armstrong tells Sherman that he did not want her to come along, and en route to Copenhagen, he receives a radiogram to pick up a book once in Copenhagen. The book, allegedly a first-edition of one of Armstrong's book, actually contains a message that says, "Contact in case (of emergency.)" He tells Sherman he is going to Stockholm, but she discovers he is flying to East Berlin, and she follows him there. When they land, he is welcomed by representatives of the East German government, and Sherman realizes that Armstrong has defected to the other side. Sherman, however, is extremely uncomfortable with this move, realizing if the apparent defection is in fact real, given the circumstances of the Cold War of the period, she would likely never see her home or family again. They are constantly accompanied by Professor Karl Manfred (Günter Strack), who took part in arranging Armstrong's defection to the East. The next day, Armstrong sneaks out of the hotel in East Berlin of his temporary residence, visits a local art museum and sneaks out of a side door to prevent himself from being followed. He takes a taxi to the countryside outside the city and to a local farm where he visits a contact, a 'farmer' (Mort Mills), where it is revealed that his defection is in fact a ruse to gain the confidence of the East German scientific establishment in order to learn just how much their chief scientist Professor Gustav Lindt (Ludwig Donath) and by extension, the Soviet Union, knows about anti-missile systems. While Armstrong has not informed the U.S. government of his plan, he has made preparations to return to the West via an escape network, known as (Pi). However, Armstrong is followed to this farm by his official body man, Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), an East German security officer assigned to him. Gromek realizes what is and that Armstrong is a double agent when he sees the Pi symbol in the dirt outside the front door that Armstrong made. A Gromek is calling the police to report his suspicions, a tortuous and violent fight scene commences that ends with Gromek being killed. So as to not arouse the suspicion of the taxi driver who brought Armstrong to the farm, a gun is not used to kill Gromek, but instead he is choked, stabbed, hit with a shovel, and, ultimately, gassed to death by Armstrong and the farmer's wife (Carolyn Conwell). Gromek and his motorcycle are then buried by the 'farmer' and his wife, while Armstrong's blood-stained coat is burned. Armstrong then takes the taxi waiting outside the farmhouse back to East Berlin and to his hotel. However, a few days later, the taxicab driver (Peter Lorre Jr.) who drove Armstrong to the farm, reports Armstrong's behavior to the police when he later sees Gromek's missing person ad in the newspaper. The local police and a team of volunteers search the farmhouse, and begin to dig up the grounds around the farmhouse. The remains of Gromek are found; the fate of the farmer's wife is not shown. Meanwhile, Armstrong visits the physics faculty of Karl Marx University in Leipzig, where his interview with the scientists is abruptly ended when he is questioned by security officials about the missing Gromek. At the same time, the faculty try to interrogate Sherman about her knowledge of the American "Gamma Five" anti-missile program, but she refuses to cooperate and runs from the room even though she had agreed to cooperate and defect to East Germany. At this point, Armstrong secretly confides to her his actual motives, and asks her to go along with the ruse. Desperate and aware that time is running out for him, Armstrong finally goads Professor Lindt into revealing his anti-missile equations in a fit of pique over what Lindt believes are Armstrong's mathematical mistakes. When Lindt hears over the university's loudspeaker system that Armstrong and Sherman are being sought for questioning when Gromek's body is found, he realizes that he has given up his secrets while learning nothing in return. Armstrong and Sherman escape from the university with a little help from of the university clinic physician Dr. Koska (Gisela Fischer). They travel to East Berlin, pursued by the Stasi, in a decoy bus operated by the escape network, led by Mr. Jacobi (David Opatoshu). Roadblocks, highway robbery by Soviet Army deserters, and bunching with the "real" bus result in the police becoming aware of the decoy bus and everyone flees off the bus and scatter in the streets. While looking for the Friedrichstraße post office, the two encounter the exiled Polish countess Kuchinska (Lila Kedrova) who leads them to the post office in hopes of being sponsored for an American visa. The police find Armstrong and Sherman at the post office, and Kuchinska throws herself in front of the police so they can go to their next destination, a travel agency. That evening, when Armstrong and Sherman arrive at the travel agency, however, the police were performing a raid. Two men from the travel agency walk up to them on the sidewalk - one is the 'farmer' - and give them tickets to the ballet, with the plan being to travel with the troupe to Sweden later that night. While they are attending the ballet and waiting for the pick-up, they are reported to the police because they were spotted by the lead Russian ballerina (Tamara Toumanova), who bears a bit of a grudge; Earlier in the film, she flew to East Berlin on the same airplane as Armstrong, and mistakenly believed the press were there to greet her, rather than Armstrong. Armstrong and Sherman escape through a crowded theater by shouting "fire". With the help of the escape network, Armstrong and Sherman hide in a crate of props belonging to a traveling Czech circus troupe. They cross the Baltic Sea to Sweden on a freighter. The ballerina makes a mistake in uncovering where Armstrong and Sherman are hiding on the ship, and the wrong crates are fired on when already dangling over the pier (thus, Swedish crane operators technically have control over the property once it was off an East German boat), and Armstrong and Sherman are able to escape by jumping overboard and swimming to a Swedish dock, safe at last.

The story opens as a woman with dark hair, seen only from behind, carries a suitcase along a train platform. The yellow purse tucked under her arm is presented at such an angle that it is suggestive of female genitalia. In the next scene, outraged business owner Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel) rants to a pair of detectives that he was "cleaned out" by a female employee named Marion Holland whom he obviously hired for her looks despite her lack of professional references. A client of Strutt's, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), overhears the conversation and says that he remembers this woman, wryly referring to her as "the brunette with the legs." The woman, real name Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) is a compulsive thief, and has made off with almost $10,000 stashed in the yellow purse. She changes her appearance, going from brunette to blonde, and flees with the cash, journeying south to a town in Virginia where she keeps her beloved horse, Forio, stabled. She then visits her mother Bernice (Louise Latham) in Baltimore. She lavishes her mother with expensive gifts in an attempt to impress her and win her love, but the woman is cold and distant with Marnie, showing much more maternal affection towards a little neighbor girl named Jessie whom she babysits. Marnie's intense jealousy of Jessie seems inappropriate for a grown woman to express, and along with her panic over a bouquet of red gladiolas and her mother's insistence that "decent" women don't need men, the first hints of the dysfunction that drives Marnie to lie and steal appear. Time goes by and Marnie constructs a new identity, Mary Taylor, with the intent to run her scam again on another victim. She applies for a job at a printing company in Philadelphia owned by none other than Mark Rutland. Despite her now chestnut hair, he recognizes Marnie as the woman who stole from Strutt, but, excited by the thrill of chasing and capturing the attractive criminal, he hires her. Marnie robs Rutland, too, but he anticipated this outcome and manages to track Marnie down. Instead of handing her over to the police, he blackmails her into marrying him. On their honeymoon, which takes place aboard a cruise ship, Mark finds out about Marnie's frigidity. At first, he respects her wishes, but soon obsessed with controlling and dominating Marnie, he rapes her. The next morning, she tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a pool aboard the ship, but Mark finds her in time to resuscitate her. In addition to Marnie's aversion to sex and generally troubled behavior, Mark's marriage faces a challenge from Lil (Diane Baker), the sister of his deceased first wife who clearly had designs on him and views Marnie as a rival she can overthrow. Upon learning that Mark has bought Strutt's silence by paying off the money Marnie stole, Lil invites Strutt to a party at the house. Strutt recognizes Marnie, the former "Marion Holland" who outfoxed and humiliated him, but grudgingly keeps quiet about her crime when Rutland threatens to take his business elsewhere and convince other clients to do the same. Meanwhile Marnie takes Forio out on their first fox hunt. As the hounds descend upon the fox in a snarling pack, Marnie sees the bright red jacket of one of the hunters; the combination of the violent scene and the color triggers Marnie's own fight-or-flight response. She charges away into the woods at a mad gallop. She loses control of Forio and can't rein him in when he heads for a high stone wall. The horse breaks both of his front legs against the wall and crashes to the other side in agony. Marnie is forced to shoot Forio to put the animal out of his misery, an act that ruptures her already fragile state of mind. Still armed with the gun she used to kill her horse, she heads for the Rutland safe. She's driven to repeat her usual modus operandi-- steal from Mark and run away, but by putting Marnie in a position where she already owns anything she might ordinarily be tempted to steal, Mark has frustrated her compulsive desires. Marnie breaks down in a welter of neurotic conflict. Mark attempts to discover the root of Marnie's compulsions, nightmares and odd phobias: of thunderstorms, of men and of the color red. He takes Marnie to her mother's house in Baltimore where he demands an explanation of the "bad accident" Bernice suffered. He knows from reading reports of the incident that Bernice made her living as a prostitute whose main clientele were the sailors that frequented Baltimore's shipyards. Marnie relives the night when she was six years old and one of her mother's clients (Bruce Dern) approached Marnie as she cowered on the sofa, frightened by a thunderstorm. Bernice reacted to the sight of the drunken sailor caressing her daughter by attacking him frantically. Seeing her mother struggling with the man, Marnie struck him on the head with a fireplace poker, killing him. The blood spouting from his head wound to drench his white uniform led to her fear of the color red. Bernice explains that she became pregnant with Marnie as a teen after she'd been lured into having sex by the promise of her date's basketball sweater, and tells her daughter that she claimed responsibility for the sailor's death and fought to keep the authorities from placing Marnie in a foster home because Marnie's the only thing she ever really loved. Relieved of the repressed traumatic memories that poisoned her subconscious, Marnie believes that she is capable of renouncing crime and sustaining an intimate relationship. She and Mark ride back to his family estate.

A strong-willed socialite travels to a coastal town to hook up with a man she`s only just met. Once there, however, bizarre things happen as the birds begin to behave strangely.

A secretary on the run spends a night at a motel, whose proprietor is a nervous man with a domineering mother and a growing obsession with his beautiful guest.

An acrophobic detective is hired to shadow a friend`s mysterious and suicidal wife, but he ends up falling for the tortured, beautiful woman.

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John Robie is a reformed jewel thief who was once known as `The Cat`. When he is suspected of gem thefts in the luxury hotels of the French Riviera, he must set out to clear himself.

One morning, in a forested area near the village of Highwater, Vermont, four-year-old Arnie Rogers is playing when he stumbles across the body of a dead man. After Arnie rushes off to get his mother, retired seaman Captain Albert Wiles, who has been unsuccessfully hunting rabbits, cleans his rifle. Having shot a beer can and a "no shooting" sign, Capt. Wiles is lamenting his luck when he stumbles across the corpse. Fearing that his third shot killed the man, who has a wound on his forehead, Capt. Wiles searches his pockets and finds a letter identifying him as Harry Worp of Boston. As Capt. Wiles is dragging Harry away to bury him, he is stopped by spinster Miss Ivy Graveley, who calmly asks him what the trouble is. Miss Graveley, who was out for a walk, is unperturbed by Capt. Wiles's situation, and agrees with him that he should bury Harry without involving the authorities, as the death was accidental. Miss Graveley leaves after inviting Capt. Wiles for tea later that day, but before Capt. Wiles can begin digging, Arnie returns with his mother, Jennifer Rogers. The captain quickly hides behind a tree, and is pleased to hear Jennifer, who recognizes Harry, express delight that he is dead and instruct Arnie to forget that he saw the body. After Jennifer and Arnie leave, Capt. Wiles is forced to continue hiding when Dr. Greenbow, engrossed in a book, wanders by but does not see Harry, and a tramp also comes by and steals Harry's shoes. While the captain falls asleep, in the village, eccentric painter Sam Marlowe cheerfully reprimands Emporium store owner Mrs. Wiggs for not being able to sell his abstract paintings at her roadside stand. While the pair are inside the store, however, they ignore a millionaire, who has stopped while driving by and wishes to buy the paintings. Soon after, Sam walks through the woods with his sketchbook and comes across the dead body, of whom he draws a portrait. The captain wakes up and explains his situation to Sam, who reluctantly agrees to help him bury the corpse, provided that Jennifer does not intend to notify the police. Capt. Wiles decides that Sam is right and goes off to dine with Miss Graveley while Sam introduces himself to Jennifer, whom he has admired from afar. Jennifer calmly takes Sam's unusual manner in stride and explains that after her first husband, Arnie's father, died shortly after their marriage, she learned that she was pregnant. Harry, the older brother of Jennifer's husband, decided that it was his duty to marry her, and although she did not love him, Jennifer agreed for the sake of her child. On their wedding night, however, Harry never came up to their hotel room, and Jennifer learned that he had read an ominous horoscope, advising him not to undertake any long-term projects. Repulsed, Jennifer left Harry, changed her name and moved to Vermont. That morning, however, Harry found her and insisted that she return to him because he was lonely. Refusing, Jennifer hit him over the head with a milk bottle and the dazed Harry wandered off. Theorizing that Capt. Wiles's shot finished off Harry, Sam asks if Jennifer minds a quiet burial for Harry, and Jennifer gives her assent. Meanwhile, the flirtatious captain is enjoying his luncheon with Miss Graveley when Arnie arrives with a dead rabbit, which Capt. Wiles happily realizes he shot that morning. Capt. Wiles then joins Sam in the woods, where they bury Harry in a huge hole. After they are done, however, Capt. Wiles deduces that he could not have shot Harry if his third and last shot felled the rabbit instead, and persuades a tired Sam to dig up Harry so they can examine him. Upon looking closely, Sam decides that Harry died from a blow to the head and wonders if Jennifer killed him. Determined to protect Jennifer, Sam and the captain again bury Harry. Later that afternoon, Capt. Wiles talks with Miss Graveley, who confesses her fear that she killed Harry during her morning walk in the woods. She describes how the addled Harry, believing that she was his wife, dragged her into the bushes, and she stunned him with a blow to the head with her sturdy hiking shoe. Despite the captain's misgivings, Miss Graveley insists that she must tell the authorities, and they go to the woods, where they dig up Harry. Meanwhile, Sam is at Jennifer's house, where the couple admits that they are comfortable together, despite having known each other for only a short time. Their conversation is interrupted by Capt. Wiles and Miss Graveley, who arrive covered with dirt and tell them of Harry's latest dis-internment. The group then concludes that Harry should be re-buried, so that the details of Jennifer's marriage to him will not become public. After burying the body yet again, the quartet is returning to the village when Mrs. Wiggs tells them that the millionaire has come back and wants to buy Sam's paintings. In the store, Sam refuses the millionaire's offer of money and instead asks his friends what they want. Upon agreeing on fresh strawberries every month for Jennifer, a chemistry set for Arnie, a cash register for Mrs. Wiggs, shooting clothes for Capt. Wiles and a hope chest for Miss Graveley, Sam whispers his own request to the millionaire. After the millionaire and his chauffeur leave, Calvin, Mrs. Wiggs's son and a deputy sheriff, arrives with the news that he found the tramp with the stolen shoes. The quartet beats a hasty retreat, but after they depart, Calvin finds Sam's sketchbook with the portrait of Harry, which matches the tramp's description of the corpse. Meanwhile, at Jennifer's house, Jennifer agrees to marry Sam, which delights everyone until they realize that she cannot legally marry again until she proves that Harry is dead. Dragging themselves back into the woods, the friends dig up Harry and are startled by the sudden appearance of Dr. Greenbow, who believes that they have just come across Harry and agrees to examine him at Jennifer's house. There, the friends are attempting to clean Harry so that the doctor will not suspect that he has been buried several times already when they are interrupted by Calvin. They quickly hide Harry in the bathtub and scatter his clothes around the house, after which a suspicious Calvin interrogates Sam. Sam casually manages to alter his drawing so that it no longer resembles Harry, and as the doctor arrives, Capt. Wiles steals Harry's shoes out of Calvin's car so that Calvin will not have any other evidence. After Calvin finally leaves, the friends are astounded when Greenbow announces that Harry died from a heart attack. Once the doctor departs, the friends decide to take Harry back to the woods and have Arnie, who has a tenuous grasp of the passage of time, discover him again, so that they can alert the police. In the morning, the quartet watches as Arnie finds Harry, then rushes off to get Jennifer. Before they disperse, however, Capt. Wiles questions Sam about his request from the millionaire, and Sam happily reveals that he asked for a double bed. The film closes with the text proclaiming: "The Trouble with Harry is over".

L.B. Jeffries is an injured photojournalist with nothing to do but look out on his unsuspecting neighbors. It`s all harmless fun till one night he witnesses a man murder his wife.

When Tony finds out his wife had an affair, he plans to take revenge and murder her. He ropes in an old colleague to help him, but things do not go the way he planned.

In Quebec, in the sanctuary of his church late one night, Father Michael Logan finds Otto Keller, the German refugee who is employed as the rectory handyman. After asking Logan to hear his confession, the distressed Keller proceeds to tell how he killed a lawyer, Vilette, while trying to rob him. Later, Keller tells his wife Alma, who also works at the rectory, that Logan is barred from reporting the crime by the seal of the confessional. The next day, Keller proceeds to the Vilette mansion, where he is employed one day a week as gardener, and after returning the stolen money, alerts the police of Vilette's murder. The troubled Logan also appears at Vilete's, saying that he has an appointment, and is seen whispering to a woman on the street. Later, Inspector Larreau, who is in charge of the investigation, interviews two schoolgirls, who saw a priest leaving Vilette's house between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. Suspicious of Logan, Larreau asks him to come to the station. Meanwhile, the anxious Keller hides the bloody cassock he wore on the night of the murder in Logan's room. At the station, Larreau questions Logan about his appointment with Vilette and the woman with whom he was seen, but Logan refuses to answer or provide an alibi for the night of the murder. Feeling certain that Logan is the killer, Larreau calls the Crown prosecutor, Willie Robertson, who is socializing with a member of Parliament, Pierre Grandfort and his wife Ruth, unaware that she was the woman outside Vilette's. The next day, Ruth secretly meets Logan on a ferry and tells him to admit to the police that they were together on the night of the murder, but Logan refuses, as he wants to protect her. However, Murphy, one of Larreau's men, sees them together and reports their meeting to Larreau. Reluctantly, Robertson asks Ruth to visit the station. There, with Larreau, Robertson, Pierre and Logan present, Ruth says she is being blackmailed and that she met with Logan on the night of the murder between nine and eleven o'clock to ask his advice. Although both Pierre and Logan try to protect her, Larreau presses for details. Believing the truth will prove Logan's innocence, Ruth tells a story that explains how she and Logan, who had been childhood sweethearts, were also in love as young adults: When war breaks out, Logan, always serious and noble, volunteers for military service and after a while, Ruth no longer hears from him. She eventually marries Pierre, but after the war, meets again with Logan. Without telling him she is married, she spends a day on an island talking to him. When a storm suddenly hits, they miss the last ferry out and take cover in a nearby summer house, where they spend a chaste night together. The next morning, Vilette, the owner of the house, spots them and recognizes Ruth. Afterward, she sees neither Logan nor Vilette. Five years later, Vilette shows up at Logan's ordination and continues to appear to Ruth in unlikely places. Later, Vilette threatens to blackmail her. Fearing scandal for both Pierre and Logan, Ruth meets with Logan to get his advice without telling Pierre. She and Logan plan to meet in front of Vilette's house the following morning, unaware that Vilette has been murdered. Back in the present, Robertson sends Logan and the Grandforts home, as Ruth has provided an alibi for Logan. However, Larreau tells Robertson that the autopsy report has placed Vilette's time of death after 11:30 p.m., which would have given Logan time to kill Vilette after meeting with Ruth, and that Ruth's testimony has suggested a motive for the killing. The next day, Keller taunts Logan about his vows, which require silence, but after seeing the dark look in Logan's eyes, he loads and pockets a gun. When Murphy arrives to see Logan, Keller embroiders a story about how Logan left in distress, which suggests that Logan is evading the police, but then Logan later shows up voluntarily in Larreau's office and is arrested. Meanwhile, the bloody cassock is found in a trunk during a search of Logan's room. Later, at the trial, as Alma watches, Keller testifies that Logan was in great distress on the night of the murder. Then Ruth's story is twisted by the prosecuting Robertson to insinuate an ongoing affair with Logan. In his testimony, Logan still does not reveal what he knows, nor does he implicate Keller when the cassock is shown as evidence. Although the jury acquits Logan for insufficient evidence, both judge and jury publicly express their suspicions. Logan is then free to go, but the disapproving mob almost crushes him. Seeing this, Alma tries to tell a policeman that Logan is innocent, but the panicked Keller kills her. Larreau, Logan and several policemen follow Keller to the Chateau Frontenac, and corner him in the ballroom. Believing that Logan has finally revealed the truth, Keller accuses him of hypocrisy by breaking his vow and thus, incriminates himself. When Logan moves closer to talk, Keller starts to shoot, but the police shoot Keller. As he dies, Keller asks for forgiveness, and Logan absolves him.

When two strangers meet on a train, they wonder if each committed murder for the other.

It is 1831. British King William IV has appointed a new governor (Cecil Parker) for New South Wales in Australia. In full dress military redcoat and cocked hat at an arrival ceremony, he gives a brief speech that is marred by disrespectful comments from some rowdies in the crowd. A younger cousin of the governor, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) has traveled with him from Ireland. Even before the end of the speech, Charles is approached by a local banker who offers his services. Charles admits he doesn't have a penny, yet hopes to make his fortune in Sydney. The banker says he can help anyway, so Charles agrees to meet him the next day. During the next day's appointment, a powerful local landowner named Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotton) enters the bank and the banker points him out to Charles as an example of what fortunes might be made in Australia even with a convict background. Charles asks to be introduced, as he seems to recall the last name. The banker warns him that in Australia it is not acceptable manners to ask about a person's past or convict status. Upon introduction, Flusky recognizes the name Adare, and almost immediately proposes a business deal requiring no capital when he learns that Charles is a cousin of the Governor. Flusky offers Charles a temporary loan to acquire a certain land parcel that Flusky wants but cannot purchase directly because of legal limits on land grant applications, and Charles agrees to help with the promise of a huge quick profit. Charles later tells his uncle about the plan. But when the uncle wants to know about Flusky, Attorney General Corrigan (Denis O'Dea) strongly discourages any deals, saying that Flusky is now acting within the law but is a very unsavory character with a criminal past. The Governor then orders Charles to avoid Flusky. Since he wants the easy money, Charles disobeys the uncle and accepts an invitation to dine at Flusky's home. He comes to dinner at Flusky's large and elegant home in a carriage. The driver comments on Flusky's low social prestige despite his wealth and translates a motto displayed at the entrance: "Minyago Yugilla?" means "Why Weepest Thou?" Charles walks around the house before ringing the entrance bell, overhears and witnesses things that tell him that Flusky is using him to climb in social standing because he is the Governor's relative, and also that Milly the housekeeper (Margaret Leighton) is a willful tyrant who keeps the kitchen staff under control with a whip. As other guests arrive, including Attorney General Corrigan, they are all male, as all wives invited give an excuse not to attend. And, as reported by Milly, Sam's wife is not well, and also will not attend. Halfway through the meal, Sam's wife (Ingrid Bergman) comes down the stairs in bare feet and dressed in something that is more like a nightgown than a dinner dress. She welcomes the gentlemen, and walks unsteadily to sit at the head of the table. Charles recognizes Mrs. Flusky as Lady Henrietta, an aristocratic neighbor he remembers as a child growing up in Ireland. "Hattie" was a friend of Charles's sister. He sits next to Hattie, she recognizes him, and is happy to recall events of their past. But it appears Hattie is an alcoholic and on the verge of madness. After a short while Hattie decides to go upstairs to her room, but on arriving there, she utters a terrified scream calling for Charles. Charles rushes up and finds Hattie trembling outside the door and talking about the horrible thing on the bed. Charles enters the bedroom, finds nothing, yet shoots into the fireplace and comes out comforting Hattie and saying nothing can hurt her any more. Af the guests leave, Sam expresses his displeasure at the guests' wives who snubbed his invitation, and his gratitude to Charles because he saw that Hattie had been genuinely pleased and interested to have seen him. Sam encourages Charles to come again hopes that the younger man's friendship will be able to cheer up his wife. In Sam's view, Hattie's condition is the result of isolation and of being snubbed by the social establishment, and the fact that they became different people in a different environment after the years of his imprisonment. They're now an unhappy couple who are shunned by established society. Charles agrees to try to help her regain a sense of stability. Meantime, Milly is seen giving alcohol to Hattie and spying suspiciously on Charles. Charles recalls the details of the scandal back in Ireland: Lady Henrietta, of the landed gentry and Sam Flusky, a groom on her estate eloped to England. They were pursued by her brother, and when they were found, Flusky shot him dead. As the brother was armed and had also fired a shot, Flusky was not hung but taken to Australia. Lady Henrietta followed him to Australia and waited for his seven year term to end. When Sam was released they found they had much changed during those years, and the marriage was not happy. Sam concentrated on becoming rich and being able to afford material goods for Hattie, but it wasn't enough, Hattie started to drink and lost interest in everything. In the following years, the relationship with Sam had not recovered, and had been made worse by Henrietta's increasing alcoholism. Meantime the household is run by Milly. who keeps it functioning, and keeps Lady Henrietta under control. Charles insists on completing the land deal with Flusky. This angers his cousin the governor, who expels him. As Charles has as yet no money, he turns to Sam, who invites him to move in and try to cheer up and rehabilitate Hattie, getting her to become interested in horseback riding, in clothes, and life itself. He moves in, and slowly revives the self-reliant woman that Hattie was once. One of his first successes is to convince Hattie to look at her own reflection, as in a mirror, for the first time in years. But Charles' efforts to rehabilitate Hattie conflict with Milly's aspirations of control. Milly keeps throwing up various snags to upset the recovery. Charles begins to notice this, but not Sam. At one point, Hattie becomes confident enough to try to run her own household and kitchen without Milly. However, Milly has undermined Hattie's authority with the kitchen staff. The kitchen help, used to Milly's control, disobeys, and Hattie realizes that she has no say in her own house. She locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to come out. Charles, encouraged by Sam, enters her bedroom through a balcony and convinces Hattie not to give up. When Milly is called to the bedroom to help the mistress undress for bed, she knocks and because the door is locked and Charles is there she accuses them to be in a physical relationship, despite the fact that Sam had been standing below outside and probably was aware of everything that went on in that room. In desperation, Milly arranges to expose Hattie's hidden collection of empty wine bottles from the bedroom to humiliate her in front of the servants. This last trick backfires, Milly threatens to resign and leave, and, to her surprise, she is ousted from the house. Once Milly is ousted, Hattie takes real control of the kitchen, and her recovery proceeds ever faster. One day, Charles brings in an invitation to the Governors ball, addressed to Sam and Hattie. A dress is ordered, Hattie dresses up beautifully, but at the last minute Sam refuses to go and insists that Charles escort Hattie in his place. He is feeling rejected because he bought a spectacular ruby necklace that he intends to give to Hattie, but before he gives it, Hattie and Charles comment that ruby color isn't the best match for the coloring of the dress she is wearing. At the ball, Hattie is stunning and catches the Governor's eye. Before he realizes who she is, he shows her great deference and admiration. Meantime, the reception staff has identified her invitation as a forgery. But the governor insists that she stay, including Charles, whom he had ordered expelled from the ball shortly before. Right after Hattie and Charles leave for the ball, Milly, approaches Sam at his home, and asks to be taken back. It is clear that she is in love with Sam and wants to replace Hattie. Sam listens to her long plea in a speech that insinuates in all conceivable ways that Hattie is either having an affair with Charles or in any case is humiliating Sam by appearing in public with Charles instead of her husband or failing that, that everyone will think they are in love and thus humiliate Sam even more and the results could be socially disastrous. She also works in that Charles and Hattie are of a different social class from Sam, that they have views and conventions that allow them to do things that would be considered shameful for ordinary, non-aristocratic people. At first Sam does not react, since, after all, Charles is substantially younger than Hattie, and anyway his demeanor throughout has been that of a male who is not interested in women, much too interested in clothing, and always impeccably dressed. But Milly eventually manages to make Sam enraged about the situation. Sam goes to the ball, makes a scene, humiliates Hattie, who returns home upset and weeping. Charles follows Hattie home and attempts to calm her. Hattie tearfully confesses to Charles how she deeply loves and is honor bound to Sam, because it was she who shot her own brother, not Sam, and Sam took the blame to save her from prison. Sam returns to the house, demands that Charles leave for good. Charles takes a horse but regretfully the horse stumbles and breaks a leg, forcing him to return. Sam gets a gun, kills the horse, and as he re-enters the house, in a combination of anger and accident, Charles is shot. Sam is immediately incarcerated, as his convict past demands immediate jail for any violent offense. Hattie, in an attempt to save Sam, confesses to having shot her brother, the crime that led to Sam's original conviction. But such a confession brings complications, in that Sam would be freed only if Hattie were sent back for trial. They are in a real dilemma: If Sam corroborates Hattie's confession, he goes free and she goes to jail. If he does not corroborate her confession, he goes to prison for good. The Attorney General is not being helpful, since the governor wants to jail somebody for having shot his cousin. Corrigan gives Sam 24 hours to make up his mind about what his story is. Meantime, Milly, seeing her chances to get Sam slipping away, attempts to poison Hattie. She is discovered in her plot, found to have planted a shrunken head at the bed to frighten Hattie from time to time, and ousted. Meantime Charles has recovered from the wound, and, at the critical moment, reappears to vouch that he was shot in a true accident and not in a violent act by Sam. Charles is put back on a ship to return to Ireland and is waved goodbye by the now happy Sam and Hattie.

Two college friends strangle a classmate for intellectual thrills and then invite his family and friends for dinner, with the body stuffed in a trunk they use as a buffet table.

Charlotte Newton is bored of her quiet and uneventful life. All she wants is for her sophisticated and well-traveled uncle, Charlie Oakley, to come visit them. To her surprise and happiness, a telegram announcing her uncle`s visit arrives. However, something seems to be off when he visits. When two strangers show up with questions about him, Charlotte realizes her beloved uncle Charlie may not be who she thinks he is.

Munitions worker Barry Kane is falsely accused of setting fire to the Stuarts Aircraft Factory in Los Angeles, a fire that caused the death of his best friend, Ken Mason. Barry realizes that the real saboteur is Frank Fry, the man who handed him a fire extinguisher, which turned out to be full of gasoline. Remembering that Fry had an envelope addressed to him from the Deep Springs Ranch in Springfield, California, Barry goes there to find the killer, but the ranch's owner, Charles Tobin, tells him that he does not know Fry. Tobin's granddaughter, however, hands Barry a telegram addressed to Tobin from Fry stating that Fry is going to Soda City. Although Tobin has Barry arrested, Barry manages to escape from the police by jumping off a bridge. He then seeks refugee from a rainstorm in the home of blind composer Philip Martin. His sanctuary is invaded by the arrival of Martin's niece, New York model Patricia Martin, and though Philip senses Barry's innocence, Pat attempts to turn him over to the police. The fugitive is then forced to abduct her, and when their car breaks down in the California desert, Barry and Pat hitch a ride with a circus troupe. Later, they arrive in the ghost town of Soda City, which, they discover, is the hideout of saboteurs Freeman and Neilson. Barry is able to convince the killers that he is one of them, so Freeman offers him safe passage to New York City. Pat is convinced of Barry's duplicity as well, so she goes to the police. Once in New York, Freeman takes Barry to the mansion of society woman Mrs. Henrietta Sutton, where Pat is now being held by the saboteurs. Tobin then arrives and declares that his operation has been exposed by Pat's uncle and that Barry is not a part of their operation. As the fifth columnists discuss their plans to kill Barry and Pat, the two sneak into Mrs. Sutton's society ball. After Pat is snatched away from him, however, Barry is forced to turn himself over to Tobin. The next day, the saboteurs, posing as newsreel photographers, plot to blow up the battleship U.S.S. Alaska during its christening at the Brooklyn naval yards. Barry manages to escape from the Sutton mansion by setting off the fire alarm, and he stops Fry and the other saboteurs from blowing up the battleship, though the dock itself is destroyed. The saboteurs then take Barry back to their skyscraper hideout, where the police await them, as Pat had managed to escape herself and get help. Fry escapes to a nearby movie theater, but Barry is unable to convince the police to go after him, so Pat follows the saboteur to the Statue of Liberty. There, she calls the FBI and they rush to the monument with Barry. Barry chases Fry to the statue's torch, where the saboteur slips into the statue's hand and clings desperately to the giant palm. Barry tries to save him, but when the hem of Fry's jacket sleeve tears, the murderer is sent plunging to his death.

"Oh Lord, we pray Thee, not that wrecks should happen, but that if they do happen, Thou wilt guide them to the coast of Cornwall for the benefit of the poor inhabitants". So ran a prayer in the early XIX Century, before there were formal lighthouses, in Cornwall, a lawless corner of England . . . A ship is off the coast, making its way towards the shore on a stormy night. A man leaves Jamaica Inn on horseback and goes to the bluffs to conceal the warning light and cause the ship to run aground. A band of men wait on the shore for the inevitable shipwreck. As the frigate grinds itself to death on the rocks, the men kill all the surviving sailors and loot the cargo. It is daytime, and a stagecoach is on a road along the coast. The driver says to his companion that "Queer things" go on at Jamaica Inn. Inside the stage coach, a young Irish woman Mary Yellen (Maureen OHara) comments that she intends to stop at Jamaica Inn, whereupon those who hear her seem dumbfounded and horrified. Mary first tells, then yells at the coachman to drop her off there, but he rudely speeds past the place and stops near the mansion of Sir Humphrey, the local squire (Charles Laughton). She gets out to complain, but the coachman throws her trunk to the ground, tells her to ask Sir Humphrey for help, as he has a soft spot for young women, and drives off. Sir Humphrey is having dinner with upper class friends inside, grandly spouting off upper class platitudes. The butler tells him that a young woman has come and asked for him, so he leaves the dinner and goes to meet her. She reveals to him that she needs to go to Jamaica Inn to find her aunt Patience, wife of the innkeeper, and intends to move in with them, as her mother has recently died . Sir Humphrey is much struck by her beauty, offers his support and help anytime she needs anything, and orders a servant to prepare two horses so they can ride to the inn and carry her trunk. At first Mary mistakes the rude man who answers the door to be an underling, when it is actually her uncle Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks). Reunited with her aunt Patience (Marie Ney), a kindly woman bullied by a husband she loves, she is assigned upstairs room and told to get settled. She finds her aunt is totally under the thumb of the vicious Joss, and also senses that something evil is afoot at the inn. In the rooms below, dirty men are drinking and singing loudly as the uncle joins them in the merriment. The uncle is the leader of this band of thieves. They are complaining that the recent wrecks have yielded very little money, and suspect a skimmer in their midst. Suspicion falls on the newest member of the gang, Jem Trehearne (Robert Newton). He is searched and found to have a large amount of money on him, which in their eyes prove his guilt, so they knock him unconscious and set about to hang him While this is going on, the squire has come back to Jamaica Inn to talk to Joss, as it is the squire who receives the contraband and fences it, keeping an enormous cut for himself. The squire and Joss argue about various things but Joss is no match for the squire in intelligence or education or connections, so he grumblingly caves in to everything the squire wants. Meantime, Mary from her upstairs room hears the lynching plan and spots the unconscious Jem through a hole in the floor. The drunk men fit a rope over a beam and prepare to hang him. They leave the room to look for a suitable plaform, and Mary finds the opportunity to cut the rope and drag Jem out. He recovers consciousness in the nick of time, and flees outside. Meantime the lynching party returns, finds the cut rope, figure out that Mary has helped him, and comes after her. She manages to get to the roof outside, without being seen, and there finds Jem, also hiding. Joining up, they manage to elude all parties searching for them, and get away. The squire, meantime, has been entertaining guests at his house, guests from whom he learns about the next ship that is to approach the coast and might be lured to be wrecked and looted. Joss shows up and must give the unpleasant news to the squire. Jem and Mary have made their escape in a row boat to a cave along the shoreline below the inn, where they slept. Mary wakes first, decides she no longer wants to be with an outlaw, and prepares to row away in the rowboat. Jem wakes, attempts to stop Mary, and, distracted by their arguing, the row boat slips off the shore and floats away leaving both of them stranded in the cave. Unfortunately, their small row boat is spotted by the thieves, who know about the cave and figure out where they are. That cave can be reached from the top of the bluff by a small hole, so the thieves prepare to go down the small hole to reach the pair, and send for a larger boat to come. Slipping into the water, the pair hides behind a rock near the surf zone some distance from the cave as the thieves' boat passes by. They eventually make their way to shore, where Mary suggests they flee to the squire's home for assistance. At the squire's house, Mary is led away to be given dry clothes. When she has gone, Jem reveals to Sir Humphrey that he is actually a lawman, an officer in the Royal Navy, who has been dispatched to uncover the thieves and bring them to justice. He suspects that there is another man behind the capers, someone who is sending the thieves information about what ships to lure and at what time, but he hasn't learned who that is. The squire furnishes Jem with officer's clothes, and offers to help directly, as he is the ranking magistrate in the area. They both grab their pistols and charge off to the Jamaica Inn to arrest Mary's aunt, uncle, and the gang for piracy, after sending a message to a garrison of the squire's knowledge, led by his supposed friend a Captain Boyle, to come help capture the gang. Mary overhears the arrest plan, steals the carriage to go warn her aunt and uncle, so that they may escape the hangman's noose. Jem and the squire arrive at Jamaica Inn before Patience and Joss get away, and they are arrested and held at gunpoint. Mary is upset at having been deceived by Jem, in that he has let her think he was an outlaw, and for insisting that Patience has been in the gang all along. The Squire manages to send Jem away sufficiently long that he is able to communicate to Joss the timing and location of the next ship that is expected, and insists to Joss that the ship must be looted as all the others, despite the inconvenient fact that Jem knows about the gang. He desperately needs more money. The gang arrives and with the Squires connivance, manages to free Joss and tie up the squire and Jem onto chairs. The gang is very keen to go trigger the wreck and get their next load of loot. They leave Patience holding a gun on the two prisoners, and take Mary with them as hostage. After the gang leaves, the squire calmly takes off his ropes, as his ropes had not really tied him down, and leaves, threatening Patience with harm to Joss if she disobeys. Jem works on Patience's conscience, telling her that she is helping to murder a large group of husbands, the officers and sailors on the ship, if she does not release him. Patience relents, Jem is freed, and he goes away to get real help. Mary, meantime, at the shore, manages to slip away from those holding her, reaches the beacon, uncovers the light, pushes one of the thieves off a cliff. The ship is saved. Mary is captured and returned to the gang, Joss, knowing that the squire has a very very special interest in Mary, gets her on a cart and as he escapes the gang's revenge with her, is shot in the back. Joss and Mary make it back to the Inn. Mary wants her aunt and uncle to escape to avoid the gallows, but Joss is too hurt, Patience is too much in love to leave him, so they wait too long. The Squire makes it back to the Inn, shoots Patience, and takes Mary hostage. The Squire has arranged his getaway with her on a ship that is about to sail. But Jem and others track him down after capturing the gang, and Jem rescues Mary from his grip. Mary is reconciled with Jem and it is clear an unlikely love has blossomed. The Squire is trapped on the ship, and goes up the highest mast to get away from those who are about to capture him. Rather than surrender, he jumps off the mast to his death.

A man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause. After a violent argument with her husband, a famous actress is discovered by her ex-lover, Robert Tisdall, drowned on a beach. Police arrive and arrest Tisdall on the testimony of witnesses who saw him with the body. He is accused of the murder. As he is about to go on trial, he escapes from the courthouse with help from Erica Burgoyne, the resourceful daughter of a Police Constable. At first, Erica doesn't really believe that Tisdall is innocent, but she's so attracted to the young man that she continues to help him elude capture while searching for the real killer, risking her life and her father's reputation. Their only lead is provided by Old Will, a china mender who can identify the murderer--a man with noticeably twitching eyes. —alfiehitchie The heroine is the Chief Constable's daughter. A Chief Constable is the most senior police officer of every territorial police force in the U.K. except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police; the heads of these two forces are known as Commissioners. —vaggmk-1 The dead body of actress Christine Clay washes ashore a British beach. Based on incriminating testimony and circumstantial evidence, struggling screenwriter Robert Tisdall, who was a casual acquaintance of Christine's, is charged with her murder, he who was the first person to discover the body. Just as he is about to enter court for the first time, Robert, who knows he is innocent and senses that his incompetent court-appointed barrister will not save him, is able to escape. Along the way, he enlists the help of feisty Erica Burgoyne, the daughter of the Chief Constable. The two earlier met in the police station, she is fully aware of who he is. Erica's assistance is reluctant at first, but ends up being cooperative as she does end up believing his story. That help is initially only to elude capture, but then also to find out who really did kill Christine so that Robert can clear his name. That help is also at the risk of Erica and the Burgoynes' good name, especially seeing as to her father's role and her long friendship with his colleagues. As the two of them progress with trying to find the evidence to clear his name, primarily regarding a raincoat which was stolen from his car, Erica has more reason to help Robert. If they are able to discover the truth, they will find that Robert being incriminated for the murder is no accident. —Huggo A young man, Robert Tisdall, stumbles across a dead woman on the beach. His hurrying to get help is mistaken for him running away from a crime scene, which makes him the prime suspect. The woman was known to him, and in her will he comes into a tidy sum of money. Further damning is the fact that his raincoat is missing and she was strangled with what appears to be a raincoat belt. He is arrested but escapes, determined to prove his innocence. He is aided in his efforts by an unlikely source: the daughter of the Chief Constable. —grantss

An inspector deals with a blackmailer who knows that the lawman's fiancee killed an artist. Alice White, the daughter of a tobacconist, has been dating Frank Webber, a young up and coming detective at Scotland Yard. After successfully ditching Frank one evening on a date, Alice instead meets up with a young male artist who she really wanted to be with that evening. After going up to the artist's studio apartment, he tries to rape her. She ends up stabbing him to death in self defense, after which, she tries to wipe out any evidence of being in his apartment, followed by sneaking out of the apartment and wandering the streets in a shocked daze over what she did. Frank ends up being one of the detectives assigned to the case, who sees evidence known to him to Alice's in the artist's apartment, and recognizing the dead man as the person with whom Alice went off after she ditched him the night before. Frank decides to remove the evidence he knows implicates Alice from his fellow detectives, but confronts Alice with it to see what she says. But before she answers, an unsavory type named Tracy implies that he knows what happened, and blackmails the pair in return for his silence. Eventually, Frank learns that Tracy is a wanted criminal. So Frank comes up with an idea of pinning the murder on him. The question becomes whether such a move will actually work, and if so, whether Alice's conscience will allow an innocent man, however unsavory, be charged with a crime he didn't commit. —Huggo In Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock's first talking movie (which actually started out as a silent movie, but switched to a talkie part way through filming) a young woman, Alice White, finds herself being blackmailed after killing a man in self defense. To complicate matters further, the hard-working policeman investigating the death is her boyfriend Frank Webber. Frank soon learns that Alice is responsible, but sets out to prove her innocent of murder, and stop the blackmailer. —garykmcd After a bitter argument among lovers, the London saleswoman, Alice White, sneaks away from her fiancé and handsome Scotland Yard detective, Frank Webber, to go out on an ill-advised date with the sleazy artist, Mr Crewe. However, as the naive girl is lured into Crewe's studio, his sinister sexual advances will soon arm Alice's hand with a serrated bread knife, and before she knows it, the man lies dead in a pool of blood. As Alice flees the scene of the crime in a numb haze, while the news of the unknown killer is spreading like wildfire all the way up to Frank's ears, an invisible eyewitness will become a ruthless blackmailer. But, what will it take to keep him quiet? —Nick Riganas Feeling neglected by her police detective boyfriend, Alice accepts an artist's invitation to go to his studio. His intentions turn aggressive, however, and Alice kills him in self-defence and flees the scene. Luckily her boyfriend is the investigating officer who, after finding a clue implicating her, hides the evidence. Just when it appears that she is in the clear a shadowy man appears with evidence that will convict her, unless they are willing to give him what he wants. —grantss

A recently divorced woman hides her scandalous past from her new husband and his family. Larita Filton is named as correspondent in a scandalous divorce case. She escapes to France to rebuild her life where she meets John Whittaker. They are later married, but John's well-to-do family finds out Larita's secret. Larita Filton is in divorce court: her husband is divorcing on grounds of "misconduct". After the verdict and her divorce she sets about trying to get on with her life. She meets John Whittaker and they fall in love. Her life seems back on track...unless her past catches up with her. Using the assumed name Larita Grey, Larita Filton has gone to the French Riviera to escape the scandal of a very public divorce. The scandal is due to a mistakenly believed to be love triangle involving her husband, Aubrey Filton, violent when he's drunk which is frequently, and Claude Robson, the painter commissioned to do her portrait. The more scandalous parts of the story are that Claude was killed under mysterious circumstances by a gunshot wound when both Feltons were present, and as Claude was indeed in love with her that he had left his entire estate to Larita. In France, Larita meets fellow Brit John Whittaker, the two who fall in love. In Larita agreeing to marry John and she not telling him of the divorce, the question becomes whether Larita can escape her past in this new life, especially in Larita and John being in the same social class. The socialite Larita Filton divorces from Aubrey Filton and the trial is scandalous since the prosecutor Mr. Greene accuses the painter Claude Robson to be her lover. He commits suicide since he loves Larita and after a troubled process, she travels to the Mediterranean to rest. In the South of France, she meets John Whittaker and they fall in love with each other. Larita and John do not tell their past to each other since John believes it is unnecessary to know what they did in the past. When they return to England, John introduces Larita to his family. His father Colonel Whittaker and his sisters Marion and Hilda Whittaker welcome Larita but Mrs. Whittaker treats Larita very bad since she wanted that her son would have married their acquaintance Sarah. Mrs. Whittaker poisons John and when she finds who Larita is, she destroys her life.