Summary
A marble-countered Wall Street temple of Mammon becomes the stage for a quiet marital apocalypse in Luring Lips, where the metallic clink of coins drowns out wedding bells. Dave Martin—teller, cog, believer in the gospel of ledgers—weds Adele, a stenographer whose shorthand curves conceal sharper stratagems than any banker suspects. Frederick Vibart, their workplace’s impeccably pomaded deity, glides through the couple’s modest parlor like a serpent testing the temperature of Eden. When fifty thousand evaporates overnight, the vault’s iron jaws slam shut on Dave, not on the hand that actually rifled the safe. A newsreel flickered behind penitentiary stone shows Adele and Vibart entwined on an ocean-liner deck, a five-second strip of celluloid that corrodes the prisoner’s last illusions faster than acid on steel. Upon release he hurtles toward the pier, rage for a passport, only to discover that Adele has spent every moonlit tête-à-tête amassing the damning ledger that will unmask her boss. In the film’s final pirouette, handcuffs click shut on the true thief, marriage vows hiss like steam valves, and the couple stand amid dockside fog, their embrace as uncertain as a banknote fluttering above a counterfeit detector.
Synopsis
Dave Martin, receiving teller in a Wall Street bank, marries Adele, secretary to the office manager, Frederick Vibart, who visits their home and shows continued interest in her. When a loss of $50,000 is discovered at the bank, Dave comes under suspicion and is arrested and convicted. Just before his release from prison, he sees Adele and Vibart together in a newsreel and becomes bitterly jealous. When released, he rushes to confront them as they are leaving for South America. Adele, however, has evidence that Vibart actually stole the money, and as Vibart is arrested she confesses to Dave that she lured Vibart so as to prove her suspicions.
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