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In the small town of Bridgeport, California, gas station
owner Jeff Bailey is tracked down by Joe Stefanos, a former business
associate, who tells him that his boss, Whit Sterling, wants to see him the
next morning in nearby Lake Tahoe. After he reluctantly agrees to meet
with Whit, Jeff reveals to his trusting girlfriend, Ann Miller, his recent
past.
Three years earlier, while working as a private detective in
New York, Jeff, whose real name is Markham, and his partner, Jack Fisher,
are hired by gambler Whit to find Whit's girlfriend, Kathie Moffat.
According to Whit, Kathie shot him and then disappeared with $40,000 of his
money. Assured by Whit that Kathie will not be harmed, Jeff locates
her in Acapulco and immediately falls in love with her. Deducing
Jeff's mission, Kathie insists that she did not steal Whit's money but was
only trying to flee his romantic tyranny. Jeff and Kathie soon become
lovers and are about to leave Acapulco together when Whit and Joe show up at
Jeff's hotel.
Jeff tells Whit that he was unable to find Kathie and offers
to quit, but the suspicious gambler demands that he continue the search.
That night, Jeff and Kathie board a northbound steamship and begin a happy
life together in San Francisco.
Eventually, however, Fisher, who was to receive half of the
$10,000 that Whit offered for Kathie's return, tracks the couple to a remote
cabin and threatens Jeff. When the two detectives begin to fight,
Kathie calmly shoots Fisher dead and leaves Jeff to bury him. The
stunned and heartbroken Jeff then learns that Kathie had, in fact, stolen
Whit's $40,000.
After Jeff concludes his story, Ann pledges her love and
promises to wait for him while he goes to Tahoe. At Whit's Tahoe
vacation home, Jeff discovers that the double-crossing Kathie has returned
to the gambler and has told him about their affair. Because of this,
Jeff feels pressured to accept a job retrieving some tax documents that Whit
claims are being used by Leonard Eels, a San Francisco lawyer, to blackmail
him. As prearranged by Whit, Jeff accompanies Eels's secretary, Meta
Carson, to Eels's apartment, where Meta is to steal the lawyer's briefcase
and then pass the damning tax papers on to Jeff. After talking with
the soft-spoken Eels, however, Jeff suspects that the revenge-hungry Whit is
about to murder the lawyer and frame him for the crime. Although he is
unable to prevent Eels's murder, Jeff does trick Kathie into revealing that
she, Meta and Joe were involved in his demise.
When confronted by Jeff, Kathie confesses that she told Whit
that he, Jeff, killed Fisher and she was forced to sign an affidavit
attesting to such. Kathie also reveals that, while Meta was stealing
Eels's briefcase, she put the affidavit in his apartment safe. Thus
implicated in two murders, Jeff pretends he is still in love with Kathie and
learns from her the whereabouts of Eels's briefcase.
After Jeff, who is now the target of a police manhunt,
retrieves the papers, he informs Kathie that he will mail them to the
Internal Revenue Service unless Whit gives him the affidavit. Instead
of relaying Jeff's demands to Whit, Kathie orders Joe to follow The Kid, a
young deafmute who works at Jeff's gas station, to Jeff's mountain hideout.
As Joe is about to shoot Jeff from a cliff, however, The Kid ensares him in
his fishing line and causes him to fall to his death.
Jeff then sneaks into Whit's Tahoe home and reveals Kathie's
subterfuge to him. After Whit agrees to Jeff's demands for $50,000,
plus Kathie's admission of guilt in Fisher's murder and the implication of
Joe in Eels's death, Jeff makes plans to leave with the still loyal Ann.
When Jeff, who is being hunted by Jim, Ann's devoted childhood sweetheart,
returns to Whit's to collect his money, however, he discovers that Kathie
has killed the gambler. Knowing that the authorities are following The
Kid south, Jeff agrees to flee to Mexico with Kathie, and deliberately
drives into a police stake-out. As the police descend upon their car,
Kathie angrily shoots and kills Jeff, then is killed by the police.
Later, after The Kid tells her that Jeff had gone back to
Kathie, Ann leaves Bridgeport with Jim. |
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