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Grant Murdock (Arnold Gray) is a singing sensation on the radio, plus he is a
very self assured & pompous person, which makes him quite a womanizer -
which is bad news since one of the women who had fallen for him is Elsa Evans
(Vivienne Osbourne), a gangster's moll, whose boss Joe Maestro (Rockcliffe
Fellowes) has the idea of taking over management of this cash cow from
hunchbacked composer/pianist Norman Wilder (Ralph Forbes) - & if Joe can't
reach his goal with Elsa's seductive powers, he has to send Elsa's ex-lover
Lefty to kill Wilder ... & Wilder can escape his fate of being riddled by
machine gun bullets only thanks to the alertness of his driver Sandy (Western
star 'Big Boy' Williams).
It would have been a stupid thing to kill Wilder, too, since he doesn't only
manage Murdock & compose & play the piano for him ... he also is his
actual singing voice - a well-kept secret between the 2 of them, since
unattractive Wilder needs a splendid dummy (as he puts it) to hit the
jackpot with the audiences - for whom even back then looks was everything -
& Murdock quite frankly needs a voice ...
Later that evening Wilder makes the acquaintance of Laura (Gail Patrick),
who asks him for an audition & turns out to be an extremely talented singer
... & unattractive Wilder even falls for her, despite her being engaged to
poor but honest doctor Brooks (Paul Page).
But upon meeting her in Wilder's house, Murdock falls for her as well, &
womanizer hat he is he gets a date in no time ... despite Wilder's pleas to
leave this girl alone.
However, Elsa learns about Murdock's new girl & starts a rowe. Murdock
bluntly throws her out, but she wouldn't be a good gangster's moll if she
hadn's a gun in her bag ...
Wilder, who arrives at Murdock's flat only minutes later, finds Laura's
vanity case in dead Murdock's hand, interprets this as evidence that Laura
killed him - even though he was holding it in his hand for a very different
reason - & phones the police, claiming that he himself killed Murdock ...
IOt is only then that innocent Laura arrives at the scene & Wilder, seeing
his error, sends her away & makes an escape. The police however shoot at
him & wound him before he can make good his getaway.
That evening, at the time of Murdock's radioshow, Wilder shows up &
sings one last time for the audience, proving to everybody that he was actually
Murdock's voice, then he collapses & dies, but not before giving Laura
advice to hold on to her love ...
Which she does, accompanying her fiancé, who has become a ship's doctor, on
a cruise ... on the very same boat that Elsa, Murdock's actual killer, leaves
the country with Lefty, musing over who Wilder thought he was taking the rap
for when he confessed to the murder.
This murder mystery set in the music business takes an awful long time to
get into gear, as almost 3 quarters of the film are wasted on the set-up for
the whodunnit-plot - with the events unfolding themselves a bit too slowly -,
while the actual mystery is a bit too predictable & too indifferently
directed to build up any suspense.
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