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When his boss (Arthur Loft) asks him to investigate the maybe dirty
past of senator Elliot (Jonathan Hale) to base a smear campaign on for the
next election, reporter Terry (Frederick Brady) begrudgingly agrees. Thing
is, Terry is engaged to the senator's daughter Gay (Lois Collier) and thus
wouldn't dream of doing anything to hurt the man ... but he figures if he
dug up the dirt, he might be able to keep the senator from harm instead of
hurting him, as compared to anyone else digging up the dirt. Well, the
case leads him and his photographer Pidge (Noah Beery jr) to a remote
island and the estate of bed-ridden Cora Williams (Vera Lewis), an estate
where the loot of a bank robbery from 15 years ago is reported to be
hidden. Not quite by accident, senator Elliot is there as well, along with
his lawyer MacGalvey (Douglass Dumbrille), his secretary Connie (Rose
Hobart) - who just happens to be terribly afraid of Cora's black cat -,
and sleazy private eye Grady (Paul Kelly). It's not long before Cora dies
of very unnatural causes, but in her stead, psychic Kyra (Iris Clive)
shows up, assuring everybody that Cora's cat will eventually lead them to
the murderer. This freaks Connie out even more, and it soon tuirns out
she's by no means innocent but in cahoots with Grady, and the two of them
want to cheat everyone out of the money ... but are killed eventually.
Terry and Kyra soon conspire to use the cat to catch the killer, and to
nobody's surprise, it's MacGalvey. And in the end, it's up to Pidge to
find the loot in a birdhouse. And Kyra by the was is no real psychic, only
an actress Terry has hired to lay out a trap ... An old house
mystery with definite comedic overtones that has its moments - but as a
whole, it's just not stringent enough to really work, too far-fetched,
plotwise, too formulaic to really capture its audience, and its direction
hardly ever transcends the mere functional. And add to that an uneven cast
playing sketchy characters and you're left with a bland routine product -
by far not the worst you've ever seen but definitely with plenty of room
for improvement.
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