The rise and fall of a popular entertainer provides the basis of this musical drama. Harry Raymond begins his career with nothing but his ambition, his talent and the support of friends and loved ones. Eventually he hits the big time and becomes a star. Unfortunately with stardom comes arrogance and selfishness and he disdains his lowly but loyal lover and pals to hang out with the upper crust.
In this courtroom drama, a lawyer defends his sister’s fiance after he is accused of murder. The lawyer knows his client is guilty, and that another man, a sailor, also accused of the crime because he gambled away his gun, which became the murder weapon, but he must honor the confidentiality between he and his client.
Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown . When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she’s dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.
Twice divorced Jackie Millet tries one more time with number three. Unfortunately, her wedding is suddenly halted when the woman’s son kills the groom during the ceremony, and then shoots himself.
This third entry in Columbia’s “Inspector Trent” series is cleverly (and economically) set in a movie studio. A malevolent leading lady is murdered while filming a scene, whereupon the nervous studio head calls in Inspector Trent. Since everybody on the lot despised the victim, there’s a surplus of suspects.
After Smoke wins the Blake ranch in a poker game, Blake commits suicide and Smoke deeds the ranch to Blake’s young daughter. But the Sheriff is after the ranch and has Smoke arrested for the murder of Blake and then brings in an impostor to pose as the girl’s relative.
“Lightnin'” Bill Jones and Mrs. Jones are co-owners of a hotel built right on the borderline between California and Nevada, used as the temporary home of divorcing wives so that they may pretend to be in the “California” half of the hotel while establishing residency in the “Nevada” half. Lightnin’ befriends lawyer John Marvin at present residing in the California half to avoid arrest on a trumped-charge. When Lightnin’ refuses to sell his share of the hotel to a gang of stock crooks headed by Raymond Thomas, Mary is coerced into divorcing her husband so that she can sign over the deed herself.
