Daily Flash newspaper journalist Brenda Starr (Joan Woodbury), and her photographer, Chuck Allen (Syd Saylor), are assigned to cover a fire in an old house, where they discover the wounded Joe Heller (Wheeler Oakman), a mobster suspected of stealing a quarter-million-dollar payroll. The dying Heller tells Brenda that someone took his satchel of stolen money and he gives her a coded message. Kruger (Jack Ingram), the gangster who shot Heller, escapes to his gang's hideout with the bag, but discovers it is filled with paper rather than money.
Rookie Officer Johnny Dean is being orientated by retiring officer Gus. He is introduced to a depressed Larry. He is soon on the job issuing a parking ticket to the Tommy, street mafia Leon's brother.
Slip is a copy boy for a newspaper, but dreams of having his own byline. Sach is an aspiring photographer for the same paper. The two of them come across a plot to fix sporting events and go undercover to expose the gangsters.
After gangster Nate Girard (Onslow Stevens) is acquitted of the murder of Arch Cusick, his lawyer Stanley Redfield (Ernest Cossart) invites the press to a party at his apartment during which he is killed. At the party newspaper photographer Kent Murdock (Lew Ayres) meets Meg Archer (Gail Patrick) who later escapes to Ayres' apartment in the same building after Redfield is killed. The police suspect Archer is responsible for the murder, but are unable to find her, even though she is hiding in Murdock's shower.
Bulldog Drummond is injured when his sabotaged car is involved in a crash. When Jack Pennington agrees to masquerade as the sleuth, he is enlisted to help Ann Manders find her jeweller grandfather who has been kidnapped by a gang of crooks who want him to copy a valuable necklace they want to steal. Their plan backfires in the British Museum and the film climaxes in a chase on a runaway train in the London Underground.
When Johnny Quinlan loses his job in a drug store, he is afraid to tell his wife, Bertha, and therefore keeps up the pretense of leaving each morning for a non-existent job, as he begins the search for a new job. As the days pass and he is unable to find employment, their household, which includes his sister, Lottie, and Bertha's brother, Dan Walsh, goes through what little savings they have. As he gets more desperate, he agrees to do small jobs for "Nifty" Herman, a small-time gangster.
On a visit to Belgium, married couple Bob and Susie Westlake become involved with wealthy financier, Steve Mordaunt, in the sale and transfer of a collection of rare books. In an attempted burglary at Mordaunt's home, his love interest, Mrs. Rosemary Delgado, is suspected.
Near an isolated lake, an escaped psychiatric patient makes his way through the forest to his childhood home where he kills his family in their sleep before disappearing into the woods never to be found. Many years later the massacre has become legend as disappearances haunt the surrounding towns. Sam (Fay Masterson), a young woman who comes back home every summer to the secluded lakeside cottage where she grew up, returns after the death of her father to reconnect with her traditions, old friends and memories of the past.
In 1911, being unable to care for her baby, Mary Bancroft, had to give her up for adoption. Years later, in 1930, Bancroft is now a successful lawyer in New York. She refuses to marry District Attorney John Remington, because she doesn't want to tell him about her unfortunate past.
Sexton Blake tracks down an espionage gang who have stolen secrets from a rocket site. After an Air Force security officer is murdered, Blake discovers that the spies are co-workers of the dead man."
In April 1956, schoolteacher Alberto Rodriguez arrives at the office of the El Sol newspaper in Tijuana, Mexico, seeking help from its editor, Manuel Acosta Mesa. Alberto has been severely beaten by members of a local crime syndicate after reporting that one of their operatives, Miguel Fuentes, was selling drugs near a school. After collapsing and being rushed to the hospital, Alberto's plight drives Manuel to confront Peron Diaz, a notorious crime boss operating out of a nightclub managed by an American, Eddie March.
To boost listener ratings, radio personality Mike Jason (Dennis O'Keefe) encourages sponsors, of his murder mystery radio show, to offer a reward to anyone who can locate safe cracker Jimmy Valentine, who is reportedly retired. The reward for the person who finds the legendary gentleman burglar is set to $10,000. There's little tough guy Mousey (George Stone), who becomes over zealous over the possibility of winning the reward.
Ex-con Paul Adams is an engineer blackmailed into assisting with a jewel theft. Unknown to his wife, he becomes involved in the building of a tunnel from a bookshop to a jeweller's shop.
Bob, a lascivious middle-aged man, arrives in San Francisco and begins a string of serial killings, targeting young women. The first is Diane, whom he meets at a bar. When she rejects him, he breaks into her house and shoots her and her boyfriend Barry to death.
Barrister Sir Alan Dearden is tipped to be Britain's next and youngest ever Attorney General. Shortly before he leaves for holiday on the Continent, his wife Helen is approached by a man claiming to have love letters written by her husband to his own estranged wife. Although these pre-date their marriage, Lady Helen worries that scandal would ruin her husband's career and reluctantly agrees to pay the blackmail demand of £2,000.
The film's story is a contemporary one, set in New York City in the 1930s. It recounts the crime of Al Douglas (Robert Taylor), a bank employee who embezzles $200,000 ($ today) from the city's Seacoast National Bank. He then carries out his plan to confess his deed to the bank's president, telling him that he has squandered all the money, mostly through reckless gambling.
Once a promising young writer, John barely makes a living doing odd jobs. After a personal tragedy he is now stuck in a negative mood and dispassionate about his work. In the middle of his existential crisis he attends a high school reunion and meets three old friends, acquaintances he's tried to forget but who now appear like scary shadows from his past.
On her 15th birthday Avery Colden (Annie Burgstede) discovers from her father (David Conrad) that she is to be given as a secret bride to the new prophet (Tom Noonan) of a religious cult. She escapes with the help of army Colonel Jude Marks (Robert Chimento) and a renegade sheriff (Diane Venora). When they find out that her younger sister is chosen to take her place as the secret bride they join forces to expose the truth that lies hidden in a town in Utah.
Taxi driver Joe Lourik gets into an argument with a finance company over payments owed on his new cab. Believing that he has been cheated, Joe reclaims his payments but is arrested for robbery. Escaping with a pair of handcuffs still attached, he jumps on a passing freight train where he meets a tramp who tells him to see Patian, a thief and a fence in San Diego, who can also remove his handcuffs.
The opening of this film begins at a dinner party for Giovanni and his wife Elvira who are celebrating a wedding anniversary. However, not everyone is happy for them as Elvira's father (possibly a senator) enters and angrily confronts Giovanni over his arrogance, adultery, and recklessness. Giovanni's ego is unruffled by this and calmly tells his father-in-law to die as soon as possible.
