Fly-by-Night
Cast & Crew
Robert Siodmak
Nancy Kelly
Richard Carlson
Albert Basserman
Miles Mander
Walter Kingsford
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When physician Jeff Burton, on vacation for a medical convention, is forced to stop by police searching for George Tieler, an escaped inmate of the Riverford Sanitarium, Tieler slips unnoticed into Jeff's car. Later, Tieler forces Jeff at gunpoint to allow him into his hotel room. Tieler desperately tries to convince Jeff that he is the quite sane assistant of an inventor named Langner, who created a weapon known as G-32. Tieler claims that he was kidnapped by German spies who are after the invention, which he has hidden in a train station locker. While Jeff is distracted with a phone call, someone sneaks into the room and kills Tieler with Jeff's surgical knife. After retrieving Tieler's train station claim ticket, Jeff escapes from the police and hides in artist Pat Lindsey's hotel room. Pat quickly sketches Jeff's face for the police and leaves the drawing behind when the desperate Jeff takes her hostage. Pat does not believe Jeff's story but agrees not to try to escape until he can investigate. Jeff and Pat go to Langner's house in the country to tell him about Tieler, but soon realize that they are talking to an impostor. Jeff and Pat run away from the house and take refuge in a police car, claiming that they are an eloping couple. To keep their identities secret, Jeff and Pat are then forced to follow through with the marriage when officers John and Charlie Prescott take them to their father, a justice of the peace. The newly married couple spend the night at the Prescotts' where Pat, now sympathetic, agrees to help Jeff. The next morning they steal the Prescott's car, and claim the package at the train station. Pat then checks Jeff into the Riverford Sanitarium so that he can work undercover, and he soon contacts the real Langner, who is being held prisoner in solitary confinement, and notifies Pat to go to the police. Pat's drawing of Jeff is published in the newspaper and Dr. Storm, head of the sanitarium, plans to kill Jeff. Eventually, Storm gets the invention and forces Langner to demonstrate the prototype, which Langner cleverly uses against Storm. The weapon, designed to destroy the optic nerve of the enemy, blinds Storm, and Langner reveals that he too has been blind since he made the discovery. Meanwhile, the Prescotts, who have been on the trail of their stolen car, intervene and arrest the spies. Later, Jeff eludes the process-server that Pat has sent with divorce papers, and convinces her that they should stay married.
Director
Robert Siodmak
Cast
Nancy Kelly
Richard Carlson
Albert Basserman
Miles Mander
Walter Kingsford
Martin Kosleck
Marion Martin
Oscar O'shea
Mary Gordon
Edward Gargan
Clem Bevans
Arthur Loft
Michael Morris
Nestor Paiva
Cy Kendall
John Butler
John H. Dilson
Kate Mackenna
Milton Kibbee
Stanley Blystone
Dick Rich
Eddie Dunn
William Wright
Ella Neal
Si Jenks
Wade Boteler
Paul Mcvey
Pat Flaherty
Eddie Acuff
Gladys Blake
Nell Craig
J. Anthony Hughes
Crew
Colbert Clark
John Cope
Haldane Douglas
Jay Dratler
Hans Dreier
Harve Foster
F. Hugh Herbert
Gene Merritt
Ben Roberts
Arthur Schmidt
John Seitz
Sidney Sheldon
Joseph Sistrom
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Dangerous Holiday. A Hollywood Reporter news item notes that Albert Dekker, Patricia Morison and Robert Preston were initially slated for the lead roles, and that Sol C. Siegel was slated to produce.
