Margin for Error 1943

Moe Finkelstein, [Milton Berle], and his colleague Officer Solomon, [Joe Kirk], are assigned by the mayor to act as bodyguards for German consul Karl Baumer, [Otto Preminger], in New York City. The mayor insists that, despite his personal opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, the safety of everyone depends on this delicate duty, and Captain Mulrooney, [Edward McNamara], who placed them there, believes Moe can show the crucial difference between their democratic system and the Nazi one.

Moe’s sense of duty clashes with Baumer’s precarious position, because Baumer is under pressure from Berlin for squandering funds meant to finance sabotage. Baumer’s secretary and trusted aide, Baron Max von Alvenstor, [Carl Esmond], has grown tired of his boss and resents delays in delivering a damaging financial report to Berlin. Baumer’s wife, Sophia Baumer, [Joan Bennett], confesses to Moe that she married Baumer not for love but to secure her father’s release from prison, a motive that adds to the web of tension around the consulate. Otto Horst, [Howard Freeman], has orders to obtain false identification papers for German saboteurs who are assigned to strike a U.S. port at the end of a radio broadcast featuring Hitler, further complicating the spy game surrounding Baumer.

Berlin moves to remove Horst and use Baumer to frame Max for murder, while Baumer himself tries to secure Sophia’s complicity in the plan. Sophia, however, warns Horst, forcing him to carry a gun for protection. As Baumer hosts a gathering with Horst, Max, and Dr. Jennings, [Clyde Fillmore], the guests listen to a Nazi broadcast, and in a moment of betrayal, Horst stabs the Consul with his knife without drawing immediate attention. Sophia seizes Horst’s gun and kills Baumer, while Max urges Sophia to escape before anyone notices the crime.

Moe begins to question the assembled suspects, and Sophia quickly confesses to the murder, though Max maintains that he himself killed Baumer. Moe then uncovers a broader sequence of deaths and deceptions: Baumer was not only shot and stabbed but also poisoned. The investigation leads Max to rush to the port where the saboteurs are hidden and order them to dismantle the bomb, which they do with only minutes to spare, allowing the saboteurs to be captured. Back at the consulate, Max identifies Horst as an accomplice to the saboteurs, and Horst is arrested.

A coroner’s report confirms Baumer died of poisoning. By reconstituting the events, Moe’s team discovers that Baumer had prepared a whisky glass for Max that was later confused with Max’s own brandy glass; the window outside had disturbed the scene, and Baumer ended up drinking from the wrong glass, ingesting the poison he had intended for Max. The web of motives—love, loyalty, and fear of Berlin’s reach—unravels as the plot is resolved, exposing how each character’s choices intersected with a larger scheme of espionage and betrayal.