L'amante sconosciuto(1954)

Recently arrived in Manhattan from her hometown of Savannah, twenty year old aspiring writer Nancy Ordway, outwardly innocent but inwardly scheming, is able to insinuate herself into a segment of Broadway elite by using her aging uncle, Gordon Ling, a bit player, as a jumping off point. As an uninvited guest at a lavish party at the apartment of Broadway diva Carlotta Marin and her non-theater husband Brian Mullen, Nancy meets Peter Denver, the producer of the hit show in which Carlotta stars but Peter admits he doesn't much like as a person. Uncle Gordon is a featured player. Peter, who lives in the same apartment building, only attended the party because of a vow to his currently absent wife, Broadway star Iris Denver, to keep the peace with Carlotta in seeing how close their lives are intertwined. Nancy implies that her current abode is not conducive to getting any work done. Feeling somewhat sorry for Nancy, Peter, solely in an act of kindness with no intention of romance, offers his and Iris' apartment as a place to write during the day as long as Iris is out of town. The Denvers, arriving home after Peter picks up Iris from the airport, discover Nancy's dead body hanging in their bathroom in what appears to be suicide. But when lead police investigator, Detective Bruce, discovers further evidence including that Nancy was murdered, Peter moves to the top of the suspect list. With evidence piling up against him, Peter decides his best course of action is to evade the police and investigate on his own to clear his name. —Huggo / edited by Hans Delbruck