The Woman in Room 13

When Major John Bruce's candidacy for mayor is threatened because he and his wife Laura are estranged, he visits their former home and attempts a reconciliation. Though Laura, a composer, has been faithful to the philandering Bruce throughout the marriage, she admits that she loves another, which sends the embittered, failed politician into a rage. Bruce vows to make Laura's "lover" pay someday for what he has taken. Later, Laura marries her true love, businessman Paul Ramsey, who is happy to allow his wife to continue with her musical career, even though it requires that she spend every afternoon with Victor LeGrand, a concert singer, with whom she is preparing a concert at Mendelssohn Hall, where he will perform her music. Paul's father Howard and Paul's uncle Andy Parker, who lives in the same apartment building as LeGrand, worry about Laura's fidelity to Paul, and when Paul must leave town on business and miss the important concert, the elder Ramseys decide to have Laura trailed by a private detective. Meanwhile, LeGrand, feeling he should have married Laura himself, brags to his accompanist, Peppi Tonelli, of his intent to seduce the innocent wife, and makes a plan to carry out his designs after the concert. The detective firm chosen by the Ramseys is headed by Bruce, who sees the assignment as his chance to get even with his ex-wife and her new husband. Bruce and his partner Alec, disguised as waiters, plant a dictaphone in LeGrand's room. Sari Lodar, LeGrand's current lover, appears and berates LeGrand for ignoring her in favor of Laura. After the successful concert, Victor tells Peppi to bring Laura to his room and to be careful to avoid the jealous Sari. In the hotel room that serves as the private detective's headquarters, Bruce, Alec, and Paul, who has returned early from his business trip at his father's urging, watch a stenographer type out the conversation that takes place in LeGrand's room. Unknown to the surveillants, Laura has returned home, and the torrid conversation that ensues is actually between LeGrand and Sari. Paul, in disbelief at his wife's conduct, rushes to LeGrand's apartment vowing that he will kill the man. As he hammers on the door, shots ring out in the apartment, and Paul sees the figure of a girl, Sari, running to the fire escape. He picks up the gun as the watchman enters and is charged with LeGrand's murder. At the police station, Paul confesses to the crime after the police trick him by telling him that his wife must have committed the murder in a fit of jealousy, and that she has double-crossed him. On the witness stand, Laura tries to save Paul from getting the death penalty by claiming that she was involved with LeGrand and was in the room, but that Paul had no previous knowledge of her affair, thus giving Paul the excuse of the "unwritten law"-- that a man in a fit of passion over his wife's infidelities may be partially excused for his crimes. Paul is found guilty, but is saved from the electric chair; Bruce, meanwhile, accosts Laura saying that he knows the truth about the murder. Sari later sends a letter to Laura confessing all, and Laura invites Bruce to her apartment to help her to find the murderess. When he admits that he helped Sari, who has since committed suicide in San Francisco, to leave town, a detective steps from the shadows and says that he captured Bruce's words on a dictaphone. Paul, cleared of all blame, meets Laura in a car outside the prison and the couple kiss.