Summary
In an audacious bid to forestall the inevitable scrutiny of bank examiner Alfred Austin, the desperate financier Robert Andrews orchestrates a theatrical deception of the highest order: his own simulated assassination during a lavish, high-stakes gala. This macabre performance serves as a desperate smoke screen for his institution’s precarious ledgers, instantly transforming a social gathering into a claustrophobic crime scene teeming with legitimate grievances and manufactured dread. Suspicion immediately falls upon Hammond, a young man whose romantic aspirations toward Andrews’ ward, Anne Maynard, provide a convenient, if superficial, motive for the authorities. Simultaneously, the narrative threads tighten around Lester Knowles, whose simmering resentment regarding Andrews’ perceived intimacy with Mrs. Knowles paints him as a prime candidate for a crime of passion. As the evening descends into a cacophony of slapstick chaos and genuine peril, the film masterfully balances the tension of a whodunit with the frantic energy of a bedroom farce. The resolution arrives not through forensic triumph, but through the sudden, almost miraculous reappearance of Andrews himself, coinciding with the news that a previously doubted debtor, Joshua Brown, has liquidated a massive loan. This financial salvation renders the examiner’s audit moot, leading to a whimsical conclusion where the auditor pivots to the burgeoning real estate market, and Andrews finally discards his masks of deceit to declare his genuine affection for Anne.
Synopsis
Robert Andrews hosts a large party and there stages his own murder, to keep bank examiner Alfred Austin from examining the records of his bank. Everyone is suspected--especially young Hammond, who is in love with Andrews' ward, Anne Maynard, and Lester Knowles, who has been suspicious of Andrews' friendship with Mrs. Knowles. The hilarious turmoil that ensues is finally cleared up by the reappearance of Andrews himself and the announcement that Joshua Brown has repaid the large loan that the directors wished to conceal from Austin. Finally, the group learns that Austin has turned to real estate, and Andrews proclaims his love for Anne.
