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Iris Adrian, Douglas Fowley, and Frank Jenks in Shake Hands with Murder (1944)

Plot

Shake Hands with Murder

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Summaries

  • A female bail-bond broker and her partner help an accused embezzler prove his innocence. Having the body of the embezzler's late business partner pop up doesn't help matters.
  • Patsy Brent, bail-bond broker, finds that her partner, Eddie Jones, who is trying to acquire a better class clientèle has invested all of their capital to bail Steve Morgan, investment company executive who has been framed on an embezzlement charge out of jail. And Morgan has disappeared. Trying to find Morgan, Patsy stumbles across the body of John Clark, Morgan's ex-boss, not to mention now late boss. Patsy spots Morgan and catches up with him at a mountain lodge, where he convinces her of his innocence. They spend a week searching together for the missing bonds Morgan was accused of stealing. They finally find the bonds hidden in a secret compartment which has been rigged as a booby trap. This booby trap is rigged so that when the panel is opened a wire leading from the panel to a suit of armor, causes the arm of the armor to raise and fire a gun hidden within it to fire at the person opening the panel. Morgan tricks the board of directors into coming to the lodge and, when they arrive, he asks them alone one by one to open the panel, telling them that's where the missing bonds are hidden. He knows the guilty person will, knowing the panel is still booby-trapped, refuse.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Synopsis

  • Eddie Jones, owner of a small bail bond business, has been paid his highest fee yet for bailing out investment company executive Steve Morgan. When Patsy Brent, Eddie's partner, learns about the bond, she angrily reprimands him for using all the company's money to bail out a high-risk client, and warns him of the dire consequences if Steve takes flight. Patsy's fears are soon realized when Steve disappears and the company is immediately faced with bankruptcy. Determined to return Steve to prison and cancel his bail bond, Patsy initiates a search. Eddie, meanwhile, visits Steve's employer, John Clark, who confesses that he framed Steve for the theft of stolen securities in the hopes that the real thief would eventually expose himself. Soon after Clark tells Eddie that he suspects that the thief was one of his six other employees, Clark is found murdered in his office. Patsy eventually finds Steve at Clark's mountain lodge, where Steve convinces her that he is innocent, and then enlists her help in finding the stolen securities. Believing that the securities were stolen and then hidden somewhere in the lodge during the company's last board meeting, Steve begins a thorough search of the premises. During their search, Steve is nearly killed when he moves a booby-trapped bookcase, which is connected by a thin wire to the trigger of a gun that has been placed in a suit of armor. The gun, set to fire at anyone approaching the lodge's safe, goes off, but Steve escapes injury. Steve and Patsy discover the stolen bonds in the safe, but Steve knows that he still must prove that the bonds were placed there by someone other than himself. In hopes of trapping the man who stole the securities and killed Clark, Steve and Patsy invite the five other board members to visit the lodge. As soon as the men arrive, Steve asks each of them, individually, to approach the booby-trapped safe, certain that the guilty man will hesitate or refuse. All the men willingly approach the safe, except Haskins, who reveals himself as the thief when he refuses to comply. Haskins quickly brandishes a gun and holds everyone in the room at gunpoint. Patsy, who has hidden herself inside the suit of armor, forces Haskins to drop his gun. Haskins then attempts to flee, but Steve manages to capture and subdue him. With the case solved, Steve helps Patsy out of the suit and proposes marriage to her.

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Iris Adrian, Douglas Fowley, and Frank Jenks in Shake Hands with Murder (1944)
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By what name was Shake Hands with Murder (1944) officially released in Canada in English?
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