On the streets of New York on Third Avenue, stands Lieutenant Frank Reeves ( Reed Hadley) looking up at the freshly painted sign of Bradford Gult Private Investigator. He walks up the stairs to the office to be greeted by a charming looking blonde by the name of Kathleen ( Lucille Ball) who informs Reeves that ” I don’t know anything. You couldn’t find out by asking Mr Galt”.
A moments later, In walks Bradford Gult ( Mark Stevens) and the two talk in his office hoping Reeves would sure mind his own buisness. Reeves informs him that ” I’ve taken a personal interest in you. I promised my friends in California to see you didn’t get into mischief..you’re an impulsive youth you know”. With a harsh swipe off his wooden desk, Galt strikes a cigarette angrily asking for a fair chance at the legitimate buisness. ” I’m playing this by the book”. A book that was soon going to be filled with deceit and murder, come back to fill in the blanks from his chequered past.
As the working hours come to a close, Galt offers up an invitation to Kathleen to have dinner with him. A little evening stroll around an amusement park seems quaint enough as the two play their hands at a few games, though Kathleens admiration for Galt is evidently shown as she is a lady who doesn’t just play for scores but ” i play for keeps”.
It’s not even close to half time when play time seems to be hastily over when they notice a guy in a white suit following them. “yeah i know..about five foot ten, brown hair, sport’s shoes. Ring on his left pinkie”. Talk about ruining a ‘first date'(!)
The pair devise a plan and Kathleen makes her way in a cab parked on a corner of the office out of sight, whilst Galt makes his way down an alleyway, armed with his ‘pepper pot’ ( that’s a gun to the likes of you and I) and waits for a one on one face off with the anonymous stalker who goes by the name of Fred Foss ( William Bendix) , or so were told.
With the shutters down in his office, Mr Fred Foss tastes the bitter side of interrogation from Galt, as he realises playing twenty questions wasn’t going to run so smootly if he just quit lying and “maybe i wont knock your teeth out”. A few tussels later, Foss chokes out that he was paid to tail him by a tall, fancy dresser who went by the name of Anthony Jardine ( Kurt Kreuger) and hurries off in his dishevelled state before his suit could any more dirtier than his face.
It’s not long before Kathleen makes her way back to the office to greet Galt, mockingly suggesting that he hire William Powell as his secretary, ” He’s a detective in the Thin Man”. A sneaky yet lovely tribute to pay to an equally brilliant movie.
It is at that very moment, all their coyful tongue in cheek flirtations are sealed with a brief but passionate kiss, opening up the steel safe that Kathleen likes to think guards his heart. She is a woman that has the stardust look in her eyes that reads “i like those odds and I’ll take them”, all the while showcasing her spunk hearted ways that make her fit for more than answering a few phone calls. She just well may be his blowtorch.
” Darling, don’t ever let them know you can mix buisness with pleasure”
Meanwhile across the fancy ballroom, resides Hardy Cathcart ( Clifton Webb) and his much younger wife Mari ( Cathy Downs), who would much rather tango with someone else besides her diamonds. A man who prides himself on his wealthy goods and displaying an amusing caricature of presenting himself as the couple of ‘beauty and the beast’ and making his snobbish remarks of ” how i detest the dawn. The grass always looks like it’s been left out all night”.
A mystery unravelling in the hands of a private eye, Galt slowly shows his vunrebility to the one woman he can truly put his trust into if he wants to make it alive and find out who’s out to get him and who’s playing murder. In the footsteps of the quintessential Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe, Galt shows he too can cook up a hardboiled story with the small clues he picks up along the way to find out the truth. A classy, thrilling mystery noir that tries to hit a guy right where he lived, as Galt learns it’s awfully dangerous to live in the corner pocket alone.
Directed by : Henry Hathaway (Based on a story in Good Housekeeping by Leo Rosten)
Screenplay by : Bernard C, Schoenfeld, Jay Draftler
Starring : Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball, William Bendix, Kurt Kreuger, Clifton Webb and other greats
Music by : Cyril J. Mockridge, Emil Newman
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