Secret Service Investigator
Cast & Crew
R. G. Springsteen
Lynne Roberts
Lloyd Bridges
George Zucco
June Storey
Trevor Bardette
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When war hero Capt. Steve Mallory is discharged from the Army, he goes to the office of Susan Lane at the San Francisco Evening Star to place a classified ad for work. She then gives him an ad placed recently by a man who claims to know Steve, although Steve does not recognize the name. Because the ad offers him a job, he decides to visit the address given in the ad. When Steve arrives at the apartment, two men introduce themselves as Inspector Crahan und Detective O'Hara of the Secret Service. A man named Dan Redfern, who bears an remarkable resemblance to Steve, lies unconscious on the bed. The men explain that they saw Steve's photograph in the paper and ask him to help them catch some criminals by impersonating Dan. They give him plates for printing counterfeit ten-dollar bills and ask him to take them to New York City and deliver them to a man named Otto Dagoff. Later, when Steve meets Susan for dinner, Dan's wife Laura and her brother, Benny Norris, see Steve and mistake him for Dan. They follow him aboard the New York-bound train, where they realize that Steve is an impostor, so they knock him unconscious, steal the plates, and get off the train before it leaves. After Steve recovers, he returns to Dan's apartment in San Francisco, where the police are investigating Dan's death by stabbing. Steve learns that the supposed Secret Service agents he met earlier were imposters, and the real Crahan and O'Hara arrest Steve for murder. The inspector believes Steve's story, however, and asks him to help them catch the real criminals. Steve's first assignment is to place an ad in a New York newspaper stating that Redfern will not arrive on the train after all. Meanwhile, Laura and Benny place their own ad in the paper asking Dagoff to meet them at the train station in New York. In New York, Dagoff brings his henchman Herman on board to look at the plates, but upon inspecting them, realizes that they are fakes. When Laura and Benny explain they got the plates from Steve, they agree to travel to San Francisco to search for the real ones. Back in San Francisco, when Steve returns to Dan's apartment, Dagoff, Herman, Laura and Benny demand to know the whereabouts of Henry Witzel, the engraver of the original plates, and give Steve twenty-four hours to find him. With Herman accompanying him, Steve goes to Susan's office where she remembers that the man who placed the ad had printing ink on his hands. The three of them visit every print shop in town until Steve and Susan finally find the printer. The printer leads them into the back room of his shop where Witzel and his men are printing money from the real plates. When Steve and Susan do not return to the cab in which he waits, Herman phones Dagoff, who comes to the shop. As Witzel attempts to leave with the real plates, Dagoff shoots and kills him. The Secret Service men have now surrounded the building, and when the printer tries to surrender, Dagoff shoots him in the back. Steve shoots Dagoff while he attempts to return to the shop, and the rest of the gang is arrested. Sometime later, Steve and Susan get married.
Director
R. G. Springsteen
Cast
Lynne Roberts
Lloyd Bridges
George Zucco
June Storey
Trevor Bardette
John Kellogg
Jack Overman
Roy Barcroft
Douglas Evans
Milton Parsons
James Flavin
Tommy Ivo
Sam Mcdaniel
Billy Benedict
Minerva Urecal
George Douglas
Charles Sullivan
Carole Gallagher
Crew
Victor B. Appel
Frank Arrigo
Lynn Burke
John K. Butler
Joan Eremin
Mort Glickman
Ira Hoke
Herb Kirkpatrick
C. B. Lawrence
John Macburnie
Bob Mark
John Mccarthy Jr.
Adele Palmer
Sidney Picker
Arthur Roberts
Charles Thompson
Roy Wade
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Hollywood Reporter production charts add Byron Foulger to the cast, but he does not appear in the released film. Secret Service Investigator marked the first starring role of actor Lloyd Bridges (1913-1998), who made his film debut in the 1936 Warner Bros. film Freshman Love (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.1473).
