The Counterfeiters

During a flight to Los Angeles, an Englishman, who identifies himself to counterfeiter Philip Drake as "Piccadilly Jeff," states his desire to be Phil's European distributor. Once in Los Angeles, Phil catches Jeff in a lie and savagely beats him. Jeff's life is spared when Margo Talbott, with whom Phil is in love, tells Phil that she will leave him if he commits murder. Margo then writes her name and phone number on a matchbook and secretly places it in the unconscious Jeff's pocket. When counterfeit twenty-dollar bills are discovered in a bank and at a racetrack, Dan Taggart of the U.S. Treasury Department's Secret Service puts his subordinate, Tony Richards, in charge of the investigation. At a hospital from which the bank received some counterfeit bills, Tony discovers Jeff, who is really Scotland Yard investigator Jeff MacAllister. Jeff reveals that he has been spying on Phil, who sold phony five-pound notes to a distributor abroad, and the two men begin to work together. After Tony discovers Margo's phone number on the matchbook in Jeff's pocket, Jeff and Tony eavesdrop electronically on Phil and Margo in their apartment. They learn that Phil plans to steal the counterfeit plates from Carter, who runs the operation, and then go to Mexico with Margo. After Phil leaves to go to Carter's house, Margo phones Phil's strong, but stupid henchman, Louie Struber, who is infatuated with her. She tells him that Phil is planning to double-cross him and gives him directions to Carter's. Dan then enters and places Margo under arrest. Jeff, however, knocks out Dan and leaves with Margo, and the two flirt and kiss in her car. Carter, meanwhile, informs Phil that he is "retiring" the plates for seven years because he has heard a news story that police have found some counterfeit bills. Tony, who has followed Phil, places him and Carter under arrest, but Louie arrives and knocks Tony out. Louie then forces Carter to reveal that the plates are hidden behind pictures hanging on the wall, and after finding one, Louie slugs Phil and leaves. Jeff and Margo then arrive and find Carter dead. After Jeff locates a plate for the back of a twenty-dollar bill, Margo pulls a gun on him. Phil revives and is about to shoot Jeff, but Margo struggles with him. Meanwhile, Tony revives and dials the police. As they approach, Margo and Phil leave. To calm Phil's suspicions, Margo explains that she struggled with him because she did not want him to have a murder charge on his head and that she came to Carter's with Jeff to protect their interests. From a "Dick Tracy" comic book, Louie gets the idea to hide the plate by mailing it to himself. Jeff then visits Louie in his hotel room and offers to trade the back of the twenty-dollar bill plate for the plate Louie stole, the front of an English five-pound note. Louie, who earlier saw Margo kiss Jeff, fights him. The police arrive and as they arrest Louie for suspicion of Carter's murder, Louie's cohort, Frankie Dodge, who is hiding outside the window, learns that Jeff is really a Scotland Yard investigator. The next day, Margo encourages Jeff to go straight, but he says he wants the five-pound note plate and asks her to take him to Phil. Jeff convinces Phil to take part in a plan whereby they will help Louie escape while he is being transferred from the jail. After Phil learns Jeff's true identiry from Frankie, however, he tells Margo that he has chartered a yacht to take them to Acapulco that afternoon. Margo's father, who despises Phil, with whom he was once in cahoots, finds a note identifying the name of the yacht and the pier, and calls the Treasury Department. As planned, Jeff and Phil's men abduct Louie from the police, but Phil, through a ruse, disrupts Jeff's plan to have the police tail them. At the pier, Phil knocks Jeff out after Frankie gives Louie the package of plates that came in the mail. Once they reach the boat, Margo tells Louie that Phil plans to double-cross him. Louie fights with Phil, and when Phil learns about Margo's subterfuge, he realizes that Margo only wanted the plates so that she could destroy them to protect her father, an artist who had engraved them for a gang that disbanded years earlier. Phil is about to shoot Margo and Jeff, who tries to save her life, but she grabs the plates and threatens to drop them out the porthole. As the ship, which had been instructed by the Secret Service to turn back, hits the dock, Jeff hits Phil. The police, led by Tony, then arrive and arrest the counterfeiters. Jeff handcuffs Margo to himself and they kiss.