The Ghost That Walks Alone

When the Tender Foot Shoe account threatens to cancel their sponsorship of the "Tender Hour" radio broadcast, the show's irascible producer, Macy Turner, orders his cast into rehearsal. Sound effects man Eddie Grant has just married Sue, the star of the show, and when Turner calls the church and asks Eddie to postpone their honeymoon, Eddie hangs up on him. After the ceremony, Eddie and Sue proceed to a lodge owned by the bride's aunt, Milly Westover, and are greeted by Milly's sinister handyman, Tom Walker. That night, as Milly presents the newlyweds with a wedding cake, Turner arrives, accompanied by his wife Enid and the cast and crew of the "Tender Hour," and announces a rigorous schedule of rehearsals. When Sue protests the invasion of her honeymoon, Turner insults her and Eddie slugs him. After retiring to their room for the night, Eddie realizes that his trunk, which is filled with sound effects, is sitting unguarded in the lobby and descends the staircase to lock it. When he returns to his room, Sue is missing and Turner's dead body is lying in their bed. Panicked, Eddie pounds on the door across the hall. Beppo, the program's writer, and Cedric Jessup, one of the radio actors, open the door, and when Eddie tells them about the body, they realize that someone switched the room number on Eddie's door with that of Whitney Burke, one of the troupe's actors. Beppo, a self-proclaimed mystery buff, proclaims that unless they find the murderer, Eddie will be charged with the crime, and suggests hiding Turner's body until they can uncover the perpetrator of the deed. As they lug the corpse down the stairs, Cornelia Coates, one of the guests at the lodge, wanders by in a sleep-induced trance and insists that Eddie join her in her nightly "reverie." To avoid a commotion, Eddie accompanies Miss Coates as she rambles outside and into the woods, and Jessup and Beppo carry Turner's body into the basement and lock it in a trunk. Meanwhile, Sue has been impatiently waiting for her husband, and when he returns from his jaunt with Miss Coates, she locks him out of their room. Eddie then turns to his partners in crime, who inform him that Turner is now resting peacefully in the cellar. Pronouncing that they must return to the scene of the crime, Beppo instructs Eddie to lie in bed and pose as Turner's corpse while he and Jessup hide in the closet to await Whitney. Whitney fails to appear that night, however, and they all fall asleep. Awakening the next morning in Whitney's bed, Eddie proceeds to breakfast and is greeted icily by Sue. When Enid mentions that her husband is missing, Beppo volunteers to search for him and Eddie tries to explain his dilemma to Sue. Later, Beppo, Eddie and Jessup hear noises coming from the basement, and when they investigate, they find Tom breaking open the trunk. When Tom opens the lid, he finds Turner's body missing, and the trio climbs back upstairs to puzzle over where it could have gone. Stopping Eddie in the hallway, Miss Coates insists that he join her on a carriage ride. After halting in a deserted field, Miss Coates climbs down from the carriage and tells Eddie that she dreamt she saw a murder the previous evening and can identify the killer. Exclaiming that they must return to the lodge immediately, Eddie boosts Miss Coates back into the carriage, but the horses bolt and run away with her. Back at the lodge, Lt. Phillips and Sgt. Hurd of the Los Angeles homicide squad arrive and ask Milly to assemble the guests for questioning. Lt. Phillips then informs them that Turner's body was discovered in Eddie's sound effects trunk at the Los Angeles train station. When Eddie appears, raving that Miss Coates saw the murderer in a dream, Phillips is incredulous and arrests Eddie for Turner's murder. Conspiring to save Eddie from the lieutenant's clutches, Sue and Milly send for Sheriff Slim Carson. When Slim arrives, Sue charges her husband with desertion, and Slim, who has jurisdiction over the county, arrests Eddie. From his jailhouse window, Eddie sees Miss Coates drive by in a farmer's wagon. Discovering that his cell door is unlocked, Eddie swings it open and runs to the lodge. There, Lt. Phillips is questioning Miss Coates about Turner's murder. Denying any knowledge of the crime, Miss Coates retires to her room. Sue, curious about Eddie's story, visits her there, and as Miss Coates recounts her dream, the murderer enters. Eddie, meanwhile, reaches the lodge and when he hears Sue's screams, he and the others rush to Miss Coates's room and restrain Whitney, who admits to murdering Turner. The troupe then returns to the city, and Eddie is appointed producer of a new radio program sponsored by Miss Coates.