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After beautiful Vicky Lynn is killed, New York City police
question Frankie Christopher, a promoter who sponsored Vicky, "glamorized"
her, and got her jobs as a model. Especially tough on Frankie is
obsessed inspector Ed Cornell, who has never failed to get his man.
Jerry MacDonald, a more sympathetic policeman, asks Frankie to tell them how
he met Vicky, and Frankie tells his story.
One evening, Frankie goes with his friends, fading actor
Robin Ray and newspaper columnist Larry Evans, to a lunchroom where Vicky
works as a waitress. Impressed with her beauty and ambition, Frankie
decides to remake her, take her to all the smart places and put her on top
of the world.
Soon after, Frankie takes her to the El Chico Club, where
Robin and Larry help him to get her invited to the table of the socially
influential Mrs. Handel. The first step accomplished, the evening ends
with Vicky having been offered two modeling jobs. Vicky then returns
home to the modest apartment she shares with her sister Jill, a
stenographer. Jill and Vicky argue, for Jill maintains that nothing
good can come of taking the easy road to success.
After a whirlwind of publicity and offers, Vicky tells
Frankie that she has taken a screen test and is going to Hollywood without
him. Bitter about her betrayal, Frankie storms out of her apartment
and commiserates with Robin and Larry, both of whom have fallen in love with
Vicky.
As Jill begins relating her side of the story, she informs
the policemen that she does not believe that Frankie is guilty of killing
her sister. She informs them that before Vicky met Frankie, a
mysterious man stalked her and, when Cornell enters the interrogation room,
Jill recognizes him as the man who was following Vicky. The police do
not believe her story, but she and Frankie are nonetheless released when the
assistant district attorney decides that Harry Williams, the switchboard
operator at the hotel where Jill and Vicky lived, must be guilty because he
has been missing since the murder.
_NRFPT_01_small.jpg) _NRFPT_02_small.jpg) After awhile, Jill returns to the hotel, where she learns
that Harry has been questioned by the police and released because he said
that he was visiting his parents. Cornell confronts Jill at her new
apartment, accusing her of withholding evidence, and although Jill orders
him to leave, she is indeed withholding an angry letter Frankie wrote to
Vicky after he found out about her screen test.
Determined to find out for herself if Frankie is her sister's
killer, Jill spends the evening with him and has a marvelous time. She
invites him to her apartment, where she is about to give him the letter when
Cornell bursts in, takes the letter and handcuffs Frankie. Jill helps
Frankie escape and, after they realize that they are in love, they decide to
run away together the next day.
After spending the night in an all-night movie theater,
Frankie goes to get some money he has hidden in a safety deposit box; while
he is gone, Jill is arrested. Cornell convinces the police chief to
free her in the hope that she will lead them to Frankie, but she eludes them
and finds Frankie at the theater. They then trace a clue to Larry, who
reveals that he took Vicky up to her apartment just before she was killed,
and that Harry was not on duty at the switchboard when he left. Their
suspicion aroused, Frankie and Jill plan to trap Harry into confessing,
which he does. Harry, who was desperately in love with Vicky, also
reveals that Cornell knows he killed Vicky, but let him go.
MacDonald arrests Harry, while Frankie goes to Cornell's
apartment. He is stunned to find that the walls are covered with
photographs of Vicky; on the mantle is a shrine to her. Cornell
arrives and bitterly denounces Frankie for "glamorizing" Vicky and taking
her away from him, for they had dated a few times and he was hoping to marry
her. Cornell drinks poison, and soon the embittered, lonely detective
is dead. Later, Frankie and Jill celebrate their marriage by going
dancing. |
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