Midnight Manhunt

At the shoddy New York Empress Hotel, gangster Joe Wells is attacked by Jelke, who then steals a packet of diamonds from Wells's apparently dead body. After Jelke leaves, Wells, who is still alive, struggles out of his room, but is later found dead outside The Last Gangster Wax Museum by policeman Murphy. Murphy reports his finding to detective Max Hurley, who does not believe it because Wells, who has been missing for five years, was presumed dead. When Murphy goes to verify the identity of the body, it has disappeared. Reporter Sue Gallagher, who lives above the museum, finds Wells's body on her stairwell and, hoping to get a scoop which would improve her standing at her newspaper, hides it among the wax figures in the museum. Clutch, the assistant to wax museum owner Henry Miggs, then telephones Sue's rival, reporter Pete Willis. Pete, who was Sue's boyfriend until she lost her expense account money in a craps game at which she believes Pete was cheating, is a hero to Clutch because he cleared Clutch's father of a murder charge. After arriving at Sue's building, Pete sends her photographer away and tries to make up with her, while casting for information about Wells. When Pete leaves her apartment, he finds Wells's hotel key on the stairway. By the time Hurley arrives at the museum, Wells's body has disappeared again, and Hurley leaves to investigate the shooting at the Empress Hotel. Meanwhile, Miggs finds Wells's body concealed among the wax figures at the museum, and he and Clutch plan to move the body elsewhere. Hurley encounters Pete in Wells's hotel room, and after confirming the death of the gangster, Pete tells Hurley that Sue has the body. Unknown to them, Jelke is now holding Sue at gunpoint and is demanding the return of Wells's corpse. As Hurley arrives at her apartment, Jelke knocks Sue out and escapes into the museum, where he encounters Pete. While Pete arranges to meet Jelke at his apartment in one hour, Hurley arrests Sue for stealing the corpse. Clutch shows up at Pete's apartment to tell him that they found Wells and hid him in a freight car, but that Miggs was then arrested by police for trespassing. Pete and Clutch leave to move the body again. Jelke bails Sue out of jail and kidnaps her, and she tells him that before Miggs was arrested, he hid Wells in a freight car at the railroad yard. However, Pete and Clutch move the body again, just as Jelke and Sue and the police and Miggs arrive. Sue escapes from Jelke and the police and calls her editor, who officially fires her, then goes to Pete's apartment. There she learns that Wells had been hiding in South America but returned in order to sell diamonds he stole. Pete and Sue make up, and as anticipated, Jelke arrives at the apartment and, after offering Pete and Sue half of the diamonds, explains that he is working for some diamond merchants who offered him $5,000 to recover the jewels. Pete, Sue and Jelke then locate the cab, now circling Central Park, in which Pete has stowed Wells. Jelke demands that they take the body onto the ferry before giving them their cut and admits to killing Wells in order to steal the diamonds. When he reveals his plans to kill them so they cannot go to the police, Pete attacks Jelke and is knocked out in the struggle. Sue then knocks Jelke out, and a revived Pete tells her that Clutch has been doubling for the body of Wells in the cab. They take Jelke to the police, and Pete has the desk sergeant call Hurley in his patrol car and tells him that Wells is hidden in his trunk. Later, Pete and Sue share the by-line on the story, and Sue is hired by Pete's newspaper.