The Pretender
Cast & Crew
W. Lee Wilder
Albert Dekker
Catherine Craig
Charles Drake
Alan Carney
Linda Stirling
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In deep financial straits and short $70,000 that he owes his client, Charles Lennox, crooked stock broker Kenneth Holden instructs his secretary to dip into money from other accounts, including that of the wealthy Claire Worthington. He also goes ahead with his scheme to increase his riches by marrying Claire. Holden goes on a date with Claire, but his marriage proposal is interrupted by Lennox, who insists that they meet at the West Side Café. There, Holden finds Lennox seated with his former secretary, Evelyn Cossett, and her friend, Flo Ronson. Flo, a former sweetheart of café owner and gangster Victor Korrin, believes that Korrin had her new boyfriend run down by a car that day, and threatens to harm him if her boyfriend dies. Holden later returns to Claire's and completes his marriage proposal, but when she tells him that she is in love with another man, and refuses to reveal his identity, he decides to hire Korrin to find out who the man is and have him killed. Korrin agrees to arrange the murder for $20,000, and waits for the newspapers to run a picture of Claire's lover so that his gunman, Fingers, will be able to identify his victim. A short time later, Claire decides not to marry her fiancé, Dr. Leonard Koster, because she does not want to be a physician's wife. Claire then arranges a hasty wedding with Holden, who places a frantic call to Korrin to call off the murder. Unable to contact Korrin, Holden begins to worry when he sees himself pictured with Claire in the newspapers the next day and realizes that Fingers will try to kill him. Holden eventually finds Korrin, but when Korrin insists on their meeting with Fingers in person, refusing to use the telephone to call off the hit, Holden realizes that his life will remain in danger until he does so. Complications arise when Flo, seeking to avenge the death of her boyfriend, shoots and kills Korrin before he can call off the hit. While Holden tries to find Fingers, Fingers tries to get a fix on Holden by placing a new butler in the Worthington home. Holden becomes increasingly suspicious of the help, and when he shaves off his mustache to alter his appearance, Claire enlists the help of her ex-fiancé to find out why he has been behaving so strangely. After Koster searches through Holden's belongings and finds food hidden in his room, he privately tells Claire that Holden may be a "paranoiac." One night, Holden, unable to bear the suspense of his impending murder, fires his gun at a suspicious-looking man standing outside his window and flees. Claire and Koster go after him, and watch in horror as Holden is killed when his car goes over an embankment. Fingers, who has been following Holden, gives Claire an envelope containing the money Korrin gave him, and tells her that he only wanted to return the money for a business deal that fell through.
Director
W. Lee Wilder
Cast
Albert Dekker
Catherine Craig
Charles Drake
Alan Carney
Linda Stirling
Tom Kennedy
Selmer Jackson
Charles Middleton
Ernest Adams
Ben Welden
John Bagni
Stanley Ross
Forrest Taylor
Greta Clement
Peter Michael
Peggy Wynne
Eula Guy
Cay Forrester
Michael Mark
Dorothy Scott
Crew
John Alton
I. R. Berne
Don Cash
Asa Boyd Clark
Paul Dessau
Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman
John F. Link
Don Martin
Doris Miller
George Moskov
Herbert Norsch
Ralph Slosser
F. Paul Sylos
W. Lee Wilder
Mack Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Backfire.
