Lady in the Death House

In her prison cell, as she awaits the hour of her execution, Mary Kirk Logan pens a letter to her friend, the eminent criminologist Charles Finch. When news of the letter leaks out, reporters flock to Finch's office to learn its contents. To appease the reporters, Finch recalls his first encounter with Mary: One night, at the bar of the Grotto Club, Finch meets Dr. Dwight "Brad" Bradley, a research physician who has been forced to support himself by working as an executioner at the prison. Mary is seated at a table near the bar, and when her drunken date accidentally sets her dress on fire, the two men come to her rescue, extinguish the flames and escort her home. There, Mary, concerned about her younger sister Suzy, questions the girl about her activities that night and Suzy defensively replies that she has been home all evening. Some time later, Brad invites Finch to his lab to ask for advice. When Brad tells Finch that he has fallen in love with Mary but is afraid to reveal his true occupation to her, Finch suggests that they discuss the issue with Mary at the Grotto. That night, when Brad becomes too nervous to divulge the truth, Finch explains to Mary that Brad must work as an executioner to support his research endeavors. Repulsed, Mary rejects Brad's proposal. Soon after, Suzy arrives at the club and breathlessly asks to speak to her sister alone. When Mary refuses to lend Suzy money to give to her boyfriend, Suzy becomes angry and leaves. One day at work, Mary, who is employed as a secretary to a straightlaced banker named Gregory, comes across an old file on racketeer Tom Logan. When she asks to dispose of the file, Gregory recalls the death of Logan twelve years earlier and the subsequent disappearance of his two young daughters. By coincidence, upon returning home from work that evening, Mary is visited by Willis Millen, Logan's old accomplice, who threatens to expose her and Suzy as the late racketeer's daughters unless Mary pays him to keep silent. Declaring that all her money has been put aside for Suzy's college education, Mary refuses to pay him and seeks refuge in her bedroom, locking the door behind her. Their confrontation is witnessed by several passersby in the street, who see two shadows arguing in the window. When the shocked onlookers see one of the shadows strike the other in the head with a statue, they rush into the building to intervene. In the apartment, meanwhile, Mary finds Millen's unconscious body on her living room floor and flees. When the onlookers arrive, Millen gasps the name "Mary" and dies. The police are then summoned, and Mary is arrested for murder. Believing in Mary's innocence, Finch undertakes his own investigation and finds a discarded key with a thumbprint that matches the thumbprint on the murder weapon. Despite Finch's efforts, Mary is found guilty and sentenced to die at the hand of Brad, the executioner. Suspicious of Suzy's behavior, Finch questions her about her boyfriends, but she is evasive. On the night of Mary's execution, Finch, running out of time, slams the key down in front of Suzy and demands to know who she is protecting. Startled, Suzy admits that the key belongs to her boyfriend, Robert Snell, who also possessed a key to the sisters' apartment. Surmising that Snell snuck into the apartment, struck Millen over the head and then robbed him, Finch convinces Suzy to take him to Snell's apartment. Thirty minutes before Mary's execution, Snell returns home and Finch forces him to confess that after Mary locked herself in the bedroom, he assaulted Millen with the statue. With only minutes to spare, Finch phones the governor to ask him to pardon Mary, but is unable to contact him. After instructing Suzy to keep trying to reach the governor, Finch speeds to the prison to delay Mary's execution. At the prison, as Mary enters the death chamber, Brad barricades himself in the executioner's booth and refuses to throw the switch. After Suzy finally convinces a radio station to broadcast the news of Snell's confession, the governor hears the announcement and notifies the warden to stop the execution. Exonerated of all charges, Mary celebrates with Finch and Brad at the Grotto Club. After she tears up her letter, Finch tells Brad that he has found him a research job, and when Brad then announces that he is resigning as executioner, Mary agrees to marry him.