Summary
Ohio’s footlights-obsessed ingénue Clancy Deane hurtles into Manhattan’s gaslit labyrinth, where greasepaint masks double as death warrants. Inside Maurice Beiner’s gilt-and-grime "agency," a sham casting office that peddles extortion instead of employment, she watches the puppeteer himself topple, cranium kissing mahogany, a momentary blackout that will tint every subsequent heartbeat. Slipping onto a rust-flaked fire escape, she collides with the velvet-draped Mrs. Carey, a woman hunting incriminating letters that burn hotter than stage limelight. When Beiner’s corpse—throat ventilated by steel—is discovered, suspicion ricochets from dressing rooms to judges’ chambers; fingerprints on the judge’s dented skull match the crimson-smeared prints on the murder blade. Through gin-soaked alleys, speakeasy fugues, and backstage trapdoors, the film pirouettes toward the revelation that Don Carey—souse, cuckold, human bruise—has authored his own exit as well as Beiner’s. Curtains fall on a double wedding of sorts: Clancy weds steadfast playwright Philip Vandevent while gavel-wielding Judge Walbrough claims Sophie Carey, both unions sealed over a fresh grave.
Synopsis
Clancy Deane, who leaves her home in Ohio for a career on the New York stage, makes the acquaintance of the Webers, tools of Maurice Beiner, a blackmailer operating under the cover of a theatrical agency. While in Beiner's office seeking an engagement, Clancy witnesses his being stunned by a fall over a table. She leaves by a window, and on the fire escape she encounters Mrs. Carey, who wants to secure some letters. When Beiner's murder is investigated, Mrs. Carey is implicated but is released after examination. Judge Walbrough is knocked out by an unknown assailant, whose fingerprints are identical with those on the knife that killed Beiner. Following numerous complications, Don Carey, a dissolute alcoholic who kills himself, is revealed as the murderer. Clancy marries Philip Vandevent, and Judge Walbrough wins Sophie Carey.
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