The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)

The Saint (George Sanders) has sent Professor Bitts (Thomas Ross) his own mummy from Egypt. Later that evening Sanders visits him. He has a run-in with Ross' daughter, Helene Whitney, who is skeptical about his motives. She gives back a ring he had given her previously.

Inspector Jonathan Hale has come to Philadelphia on a vacation, and Donald MacBride arranges a dinner for him. On the way, they get a call that a murder has been committed at the professor's house. They find a card with the Saint's name on it. MacBride persuades Hale to help him with the case. When Hale gets back to his room, Sanders is waiting for him and takes him out to investigate the crime. Whitney thinks he did it.

In another part of town, John F. Hamilton brings some rough diamonds to the "The Boss," who happens to be the exact twin of Sanders (thus the movie's name). The Partner (Bela Lugosi) is due in that day. Sanders gets wind of what is going on and begins to snoop around. He discovers the gang's hideout and enters masquerading as The Boss. (How they would not have recognized his distinctive accent stays unexplained.) Sanders meets Lugosi at the station, then goes to his office and dresses down his gang for not obeying orders. They are confused, because they got their orders from The Boss. ("I think The Boss is sufferin' from hallelujah fascinations.") When Lugosi talks to The Boss, he begins to sort out what is going on. He and the gang capture Sanders, but he escapes.

Sanders reads in the paper that he is wanted for the murder of Ross. He leads the police to the gang's headquarters, and then saves Whitney from the clutches of a gang member who has been told to run her car into the river. The gang recaptures Sanders and puts him in a speed boat on the river. MacBride and Hale and the police come roaring to the rescue, but not soon enough to prevent them from launching the boat, with Sanders tied up, and the boat filling with water from a bullet hold in the side. He gets loose just in time - naturally.

Whitney was a distant cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt.

 

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Whitney