Partners in Crime (1937)

Lynne Overman and Roscoe Karns are being kicked out of their apartment. Karns, a newspaperman, is pushing Charles Halton for mayor in the upcoming elections. As they are leaving Muriel Hutchison and Anthony Quinn come in. Overman, an incurable ladies' man, decides immediately to pay the rent and stay. He charms the telephone operator into letting him listen in on their phone conversation. When Hutchison comes downstairs, he arranges for her to ride with him, Karns and his girlfriend, Inez Courtney. Hutchison meets Quinn at Halton's office, and slips him a note which looks like a blackmail threat. Overman gets Halton to admit the threat and he hires him to investigate. It turns out that his first wife, whom he thought was dead, is living and Hutchison is supposed to be his daughter.

Overman goes to see Hutchison and tells her he knows about the blackmail plot. She admits to nothing except having told Halton she is his daughter. She gives Overman the big-eye treatment and he agrees to help her. Overman calls the current mayor, Russell Hicks, and scares him into action, because he and his assistants are the ones who hatched the blackmail plan. They stop Quinn before he goes into Halton's office building, threaten him, and carry him away, while Overman listens to the whole conversation. He talks his way out of the situation and calls Hutchinson to tell her they are on their way to see her. They grab Courtney by mistake as she is going to Karns' room for their date. She finds Hutchison's purse and lipstick, then her suitcase, and gets very suspicious - then finds Hutchison in the closet.

While Overman is getting his check from Halton, Hutchison walks in, demanding that Halton support her in style. (It does not help that later that day he has to address the Women's League on the subject of "Our Forgotten Children.") Quinn sends word from jail that he wants to talk to them, but they will not let Overman see him. Overman gets Karns drunk and has him arrested for assault, so that he will be thrown in jail to be able to talk to Quinn. (By a remarkable coincidence he is put in the same cell - imagine that!) Hutchison crashes the League meeting and claims to be Halton's child in front of all of them. Now the League has no candidate, but Overman talks them into nominating Karns. However, Overman had sent some more of the sneezing remedy to Karns in jail, and when he shares it with Quinn, he dies. Because he is under suspicin of murder, Overman cannot get him out of jail to begin the campaign.

Overman talks to the druggist who prepared the medicine, and he discovers that the cigarettes that had been sent to Quinn, when combined with the substance in the medicine, would cause rapid death. It turns out that the cigarettes came from Halton's address. They are ready to arrest Halton, but Overman proves that it could have been Hutchison in disguise. Then news comes that the supposed first wife is dead, so there is no bigamy case against Halton. Then news comes that Quinn did not actually die, but was revived. Hutchison is released into Overman's custody.

Karns is elected mayor, but he was born in Toronto and is not a citizen of the U.S., so it does not count.




Overman


Hutchison