How Doooo You Do!!!

After their last show of the season, radio stars Bert Gordon, known as The Mad Russian, and Harry Von Zell decide to vacation in Desert Springs. Bert wants to escape from his amorous co-star, Ella Mae Morse, while Harry is anxious for some peace and quiet. Soon after they check into their secluded resort lodge under the assumed names Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones, their other co-stars, Cheryl Walker and Claire Windsor, also check in, unaware of their presence. When Harry spots the women, who have checked in under the names Miss Brown and Miss White, he panics because his wife is convinced he is having an affair with Cheryl and will undoubtedly find out that she is staying at his hotel. Cheryl, too, wants to avoid a confrontation, but neither she nor Harry can arrange for transporation out that day. At the same time, the aggressive Ella Mae, having bribed Bert's servant for his whereabouts, arrives at the resort, much to Bert's annoyance. Late that night, while walking down the lodge's hallway, a restless Ella Mae overhears a loud argument in Room 32. The next morning, the performers learn that Michael J. Thornton, a hated talent agent, was murdered in Room 32 and Sheriff Hayworth is ordering everyone to remain at the resort. Fearing that one of her friends may be involved in the murder, Ella Mae says nothing to the sheriff about the previous night's argument, during which Thornton threatened to expose an unnamed celebrity as a fraud. Ella Mae does tell her friends about the conversation, however, and the group agrees to "stick to the same story" to save their reputations. Just then, reporter Tom Brandon shows up at the resort, having been telephoned by Thornton with a "hot story" the previous night. Tom is excited to learn about Thornton's murder, but Hayworth refuses to allow him to call out or to leave the lodge. After Thornton's body is discovered missing, Cheryl takes advantage of Tom's attraction to her and persuades him not to mention her by name in any article he may write. Bert, meanwhile, has sent telegrams to five celebrity friends, all of whom have played detectives in the movies, asking them to come. After being informed by Hayworth that they, too, must remain at the lodge, the actors reluctantly undertake to solve the case. That night, the movie detectives are visited by a mysterious sleepwalker, but are unable to catch him. Tom then reveals to a nervous Cheryl, who unknown to him had been romantically involved with Thornton, that he found a woman's compact with her initials on it in the agent's room. Later, while snooping around the lodge's basement, Bert discovers Thornton's body, but by the time Hayworth is alerted, the corpse has disappeared again. The body reappears in Bert and Harry's bed, but once more, it is removed before Hayworth arrives. The next day, while Tom romances Cheryl, Harry learns, to his horror, that his wife is on her way to the resort. In their eagerness to end their imprisonment, the phony detectives then accuse each of the radio stars, including Harry, who once had an ugly public fight with Thornton, of the crime. When Cheryl is implicated, Harry lies that he was with her at the time of murder. Just then, the sheriff announces that he has obtained a confession from Claire's father, who turns out to be the lodge's proprietor, but Claire insists that she was in his room and is the killer. To everyone's shock, Thornton, dazed but alive, suddenly appears in the lobby, accompanied by his doctor, Kolmar. Kolmar reveals that he gave Thornton, who suffered from heart disease, an experimental drug, which rendered him seemingly lifeless for three days. To keep the experiment a secret, Kolmar was forced to move his body from room to room. With the "crime" solved, the film ends. Lights then come up in a movie theater, where the film's stars, as well as its producer and director, have been watching the picture. After the producer states that the studio is shelving the film because Thornton should have died, Bert demands that the last hundred feet of the picture be shown again. When the resuscitated Thornton appears onscreen, Bert jumps up and shoots the celluloid villain, who drops dead.