The Devil's Sleep

After juvenile delinquent Frankie Clinton is caught stealing goods from a warehouse, Judge Rosalind Ballentine discusses the case with police inspector Darnell and narcotics sergeant Dave Kerrigan, who note that a number of similar burglaries have been committed in the last few months, and in each case, the delinquents were stealing in order to raise money to buy illegal narcotics. The judge suspects that an ex-convict named Humberto Scali, whom she had previously sentenced to the penitentiary for supplying benzedrine to a minor, may be behind the racket. Meanwhile, across town, Scali, now the owner of the Diana Health System, a gym for overweight women, tells his henchman, Tony Donardi, about the huge profit they are making. To reduce his clients' weight, Scali has been giving them an illegal, dangerous drug called dinitrophenol, the effectiveness of which has resulted in a surge in the gym's membership. Later, when Frankie is questioned by Dave, he reveals that his accomplice in the robbery had given him a benzedrine tablet. Dave tells his fiancée, Jerry Winter, about Frankie's case and when her brother Bob comes home from school, she questions him about the juvenile. He says that he knows Frankie but has not seen him for some time. Bob and his girl friend, Margie Ballentine, the judge's daughter, then go swimming at a house they believe belongs to the uncle of Bob's friend, Hal Holmes. At the pool, Bob tells Holmes about Frankie's arrest and his conversation with Dave, and warns him about handing out benzedrine pills to his guests. Holmes rushes to phone Scali, the real owner of the house, and tells him about the investigation, but Scali, who has been supplying Holmes with the narcotics, insists that he continue to sell them to his friends. Later, body building champion George Eiferman, who has just been named "Mr. America of 1948," is hired to work at the gym, but head instructor Ruby McKenzie warns the other female trainers not to mention their clients' use of dinitrophenol to him. In the meantime Scali and Donardi plot to implicate the judge's daughter in illegal acts, and later Donardi is summoned to an evening party at Holmes's house to take incriminating photographs. At the same time, Dave and Jerry visit the judge to tell her that some of the teens Dave questioned tended to implicate Holmes and that some of them called Holmes's uncle "Simmons." Recognizing the name, the judge asks them to accompany her to her office, where she checks arrest records and discovers that Scali had been using Simmons as an alias. At the party, Margie is pushed into the pool and while she goes into a bathroom to exchange her wet dress for a towel, one of the other girls gives her a drink laced with phenobarbital. Margie becomes intoxicated, is stripped of her towel and thrown into the pool. After the other guests laugh at her when she pleads for a towel, Holmes agrees to turn off the lights, but Donardi takes a flash photo of her as she climbs out. Just then, Dave arrives, breaks up the party and arrests Holmes, while a traumatized Margie weeps in the bathroom. Later, Scali goes to Judge Ballentine's office and shows her a copy of the photograph. When she shows the photo to Dave, lamenting that she will probably be forced to resign as a result of it, Dave vows to retrieve the negative within forty-eight hours. To help, Bob gets a job with Scali in order to investigate him, while Jerry using the alias "Miss Summers," gets a job at the gym. Later, Margie, who cannot remember the party, finds the photo at her mother's office. At the gym, Jerry slips into Scali's office and finds the negative, but is discovered by Scali. Eiferman, who has found the cache of dinitrophenol, comes to her rescue, but is pistol-whipped by Donardi. Meanwhile, a depressed and humiliated Margie attempts suicide by taking some pills, but is rushed to a hospital and saved. Bob goes to the gym, sees Jerry and Eiferman tied up and under guard, then summons Dave, who arrives with police backup. Scali and Donardi are overpowered and arrested. Later, Scali's gym and house are converted into city-run clubs for the teenagers.