Search for Danger

In Los Angeles, private detective Michael Waring, also known as "The Falcon," is following a man named Larry Andrews to a cheap hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard when he feels that he, too, is being followed. He discovers that his pursuer is another private detective, Morris Jason, whom he scares off. Mike then goes to a nightclub and visits owners Kirk and Gregory in their office to inform them that he has located their missing partner Andrews. After Kirk pays Mike his $500 fee, Wilma Rogers, a friend of Andrews, castigates Mike for giving them the information and tips off Andrews that Kirk and Gregory are on their way to see him. Arriving at Andrews' room, Gregory takes Andrews' gun and searches for the $100,000 which he has embezzled from the club. When he cannot find the cash, he beats up Andrews. By the time Mike returns to his apartment, he finds Kirk and Gregory waiting for him. They state that Andrews is claiming that he gave the cash to Mike to return and demand that he it over. When Mike denies having it, Gregory slugs him, but he draws his gun and shows them out. Immediately, Mike heads for Andrews' hotel to find out what his accusation is all about. Perry, the hotel clerk, informs Mike that another man identifying himself as Mike Waring went up to Andrews' room an hour earlier. After finding Andrews dead, Mike takes his address book and suggests to Perry that he call the police. Mike then goes to the club and tells Kirk and Gregory that he knows they killed Andrews and are trying to frame him. When he later escorts Wilma to her car, he discovers that she hired Jason to follow him to find Andrews. A thug appears in the back seat of Wilma's car and orders Mike to drive to a wooded spot, where he pistol whips him. Mike wakes up in the jail's drunk tank but is later released on bail. Mike receives a visit from an Elaine Carson, who wants to hire him but disappears when police lieutenant Cooper pays a visit. Mike then goes to see Jason and finds the detective dead on the floor. After phoning Cooper, Mike looks around the ransacked office and discovers Jason's lunch box and thermos full of cash. Back at his apartment, Mike compares Andrews' address book with a list of phone calls he made from the hotel and discovers that he called a number for "Angel Face" shortly before he died. Tracing the number to a hotel, Mike waits outside and, recognizing Elaine, calls her "Angel Face." After she responds to the name, she tells Mike that she was going to marry Andrews. Later, when Cooper invites Mike to a meeting at his inspector's office, Mike takes Jason's lunch box and shows him the $100,000 it contains but states that he cannot help him solve the murders. At the club, Mike suggests to Kirk that he should now hire him to find the money for a $10,000 fee. Mike returns to talk with Perry at the hotel, but Perry denies knowing either Kirk or Gregory. After Mike explains to Wilma that Andrews was two-timing her with Elaine, he manages to force Gregory to admit returning to Andrews' room, but not to killing him. Mike causes Gregory to become paranoid by suggesting that Kirk might be framing him. Later, Mike, Kirk, Gregory, Wilma, Elaine and Perry meet at the inspector's office. After Gregory insists that all he did was bind and gag Andrews, the inspector reveals that Mike has given him the money for safe-keeping. Mike then tells him to arrest Perry for the murder of Andrews and Jason, explaining that after Kirk and Gregory left the hotel, Perry removed Andrews' briefcase case from the hotel safe, opened it and found the $100,000. He then shot Andrews, intending to frame Mike, but Jason discovered him with gun in hand and took the cash as "hush" money. Perry followed Jason to his office and killed him, but could not find where he had hidden the cash. Mike reveals that Perry tripped himself up when he said that he had talked with Andrews on the phone, to announce that Michael Waring wanted to see him, as Andrews was at that time bound and gagged. Perry draws a gun but is quickly subdued. Mike, Elaine and Wilma then invite themselves to dinner at Kirk's club.