A Shot in the Dark
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Mcgann
William Lundigan
Nan Wynn
Ricardo Cortez
Regis Toomey
Maris Wrixon
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After nightclub owner Phil Richards announces that he is selling out to Boston promoter George Kilpatrick in order to marry society woman Helen Armstrong, Schaffer, a local racketeer, demands to know why Phil refused his higher offer for the club and makes a veiled threat against Kilpatrick. Then Clare Winters, Phil's former girl friend, holds a gun on Phil to stop him from selling the club. Phil takes the gun away from her and places it in his safe. Meanwhile, reporter Peter Kennedy, who is in love with Dixie Waye, the singer at the club, meets Kilpatrick at the airport. On the way to a taxicab, Kilpatrick is shot and killed, and the killer escapes. Police lieutenant Bill Ryder, who is Pete's rival for Dixie's affections, questions Phil, and warns him not to seek revenge for the murder of his friend. At Phil's apartment, where he has gone to get Clare's address, Bill is introduced to Phil's fiancée Helen and her brother Roger. Pete is waiting at Clare's when Bill arrives, but Clare is missing. Later, Bill and Pete learn that Roger has been attacked in his apartment and that the attacker left behind a handkerchief bearing the initials "A. M." Pete thinks it might belong to Phil's right-hand man, Al Martin, who recently left town headed for Boston. Then Clare's body is found, along with the gun that Phil took away from her. The elevator boy reveals that he picked up a man matching Phil's description on the same floor as Clare's room. Bill arrests Phil, who confesses to murder and then pulls a gun and escapes. Bill is convinced that Phil did not kill Clare, but is protecting someone else. When Dixie tells Pete that Roger has been flirting with her, he suggests that she accept a date with him and then has a photographer snap a picture of them together. In a jealous fit, Helen fires Dixie, and Pete takes her jealousy to mean that she is not really Roger's sister. Bill and Pete question the Armstrongs, and Helen confesses that she killed Clare in self-defense when Clare threatened her life. Over the telephone, Bill learns that Clare used to be married to Kilpatrick, but when he confronts Helen, Phil comes out of the room where he was hiding and the Armstrongs escape in the confusion. After a chase, they are captured and confess to both murders. Bill tells Pete that Al and Clare wanted to break Phil's engagement, and that Phil was trying to take the blame for Clare's murder. Bill and Pete then both approach Dixie for a date, but she leaves for the evening with a handsome naval officer.
Director
William Mcgann
Cast
William Lundigan
Nan Wynn
Ricardo Cortez
Regis Toomey
Maris Wrixon
Lucia Carroll
Donald Douglas
Noel Madison
John Gallaudet
Frank Wilcox
Theodore Von Eltz
Lee Phelps
Frank M. Thomas
Emory Parnell
Garrett Craig
Jack Wise
Michael Conroy
Bill Phillips
Dewolfe Hopper
George Campeau
Don Turner
Gus Glassmire
Claude Wisberg
Paul Panzer
James Conlin
Cliff Saum
David Willock
Will Morgan
Loretta Rush
Reid Kilpatrick
Crew
Milo Anderson
Eubie Blake
Joe Burke
Al Dubin
Stanley Fleischer
Bryan Foy
Ralph Freed
Oliver S. Garretson
William Jacobs
Jimmy Mchugh
Harold Mclernon
Phil Quinn
Harry Seymour
Noble Sissle
James Van Trees
M. Coates Webster
Perc Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was No Hard Feelings. Frederick Nebel's short story was also the basis for the 1937 Warner Bros. film Smart Blonde, a "Torchy Blane" picture starring Glenda Farrell and directed by Frank McDonald (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40 F3.4146).
