Summary
“Easy Pickings” orchestrates a convoluted inheritance scheme, pivoting on a lawyer's avarice and a desperate imposture. Following Simeon Van Horne's suspicious demise, his conniving attorney, Stewart, seeks to exploit a dual inheritance clause, only to find one beneficiary, Dolores, is deceased. His solution? Coerce Mary Ryan, a chance burglar, into impersonating the vanished cousin. What begins as a simple deception rapidly devolves into a labyrinthine mystery within the Van Horne estate: a disappearing corpse, a hidden passage swallowing Mary's accomplice, the unsettling appearance of a hooded specter, and a series of bewildering pranks played on an investigating detective. The chaotic pursuit of truth culminates in a surprising reveal by a figure oscillating between two identities, exposing Stewart’s guilt and ultimately unveiling Peter Van Horne's own calculated machinations, all while a budding romance blossoms amidst the chaos.
Synopsis
Simeon Van Horne is poisoned by Stewart, his lawyer, who hopes to get a part of the estate to be divided between young Peter Van Horne and Dolores, Peter's cousin. Knowing that Dolores is dead, Stewart, who catches Mary Ryan burglarizing the Van Horne home, induces her to pose as Dolores. Mary's companion, Tony, is pulled into a secret passage; Van Horne's body disappears; Remus, the colored servant, sees a black-hooded figure; the lights go off and on; and a detective is the object of many hoaxes perpetrated by the mysterious figure. When the figure (played alternately by Tony and Dr. Naylor) discloses the features of Van Horne, he frightens a confession from Stewart, then discloses himself as Peter's "chauffeur." Peter discovers that Mary deserves a part of the fortune and convinces her of his love.
