Two in the Dark
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Ben Stoloff
Walter Abel
Margot Grahame
Wallace Ford
Gail Patrick
Alan Hale
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Late one night in Boston, a man stumbles underneath a streetlamp, his head bruised and his memory lost. In his confused state, he catches the eye of Marie Smith, a dispossessed actress who is spending the night in a nearby park. Marie takes such a strong liking to the stranger that when they both begin to fear that he may have killed theatrical producer Richard Denning, she decides to help hide him from the police. After checking in at Marie's boardinghouse under the name David Robbins, the man, whose hat bears the initials "D. R.," and Marie go to the house where Duke Reed, Denning's chauffeur and the police's primary suspect, lives. While investigating Reed's bedroom, they are interrupted by Inspector Florio and newspaper reporter Harry Hillyer, who immediately suspect the man of being Reed. Pretending to be a reporter named Johnny Smith, the man and Marie join the police and Hillyer at Denning's estate, where Edmund Fish, Denning's butler, fails to recognize the man as Reed. Still suspicious, however, Hillyer follows the man to the Yorkshire Arms Hotel, whose book of matches the man carries. In the lobby, the man is recognized by Irene Lassiter, and later is joined by playwright Stuart Eldredge, a former schoolmate who calls him Jitney. After Eldredge fights with jealous actor Burt Mansfield in the presence of actress Olga Konar, he takes Jitney to his room, where they discuss Jitney's real name, Ford Adams, and their former, now dead schoolmate, Kenneth Orme, a name Ford saw on a play script in Denning's office. In his hotel room, Ford discovers a letter from Orme's mother regarding Kenneth's play and eventually determines that Eldredge plagiarized Kenneth's play and was trying to steal the last copy of it from Denning's office on the night Denning was killed. Although the police believe that Ford, whose memory has been restored by a bullet graze, is guilty and pursue him to Eldredge's room, Ford's story and evidence finally implicate Eldredge. While changing in his bathroom, Eldredge apparently shoots himself, but Hillyer, who has been tracking Olga Konar, finds her nearby with a gun and reveals that she killed not only Eldredge, but, because he had been blackmailing her with old love letters, Denning as well. At last cleared, Ford embraces the loyal Marie.
Director
Ben Stoloff
Cast
Walter Abel
Margot Grahame
Wallace Ford
Gail Patrick
Alan Hale
Leslie Fenton
Eric Blore
Erin O'brien-moore
Erik Rhodes
J. Carrol Naish
Addison Randall
Russell Hicks
Richard Howard
Ward Bond
Crew
Alberto Colombo
George Crone
Willis Goldbeck
Al Herman
Kenny Holmes
Seton I. Miller
Nick Musuraca
Zion Myers
Bernard Newman
Ernest Pagano
Van Nest Polglase
John E. Tribby
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Two O'Clock Courage. Hollywood Reporter production charts add Phyllis Brooks, Ray Mayer, Arthur Hoyt, Thelma White and Gaston Glass to the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. Production charts also list Willis Goldbeck, not Seton I Miller, as the picture's screenwriter. Both the Motion Picture Herald and Daily Variety reviews list the film's preview length as 65 minutes, which is at least seven minutes shorter than the listed general release time. In 1945, Anthony Mann directed Tom Conway in another RKO version of Gelett Burgess' novel titled Two O'Clock Courage.
