Shadow of Doubt 1935

Sim Sturdevant Ricardo Cortez visits his Aunt Melissa Pilson Constance Collier and learns she is furious about his ongoing affair with actress Trenna Plaice Virginia Bruce. Pilson believes Plaice is a social climber who cares more for money and status than for genuine affection. Sim lays out a bold plan: he intends to marry Plaice and has even secured a radio contract that would let her keep acting while they settle in New York. Plaice, however, rejects the match, insisting she has both a movie offer and a marriage proposal from Len Hayworth (unlinked here). The moment Plaice refuses, she phones Hayworth to accept his proposal, but the moment is interrupted when Pilson interrupts with troubling news—Lisa Bellwood Betty Furness calls Plaice back, claiming she herself will marry Hayworth the next day.

Later, at a club, Sim tries to enlist the services of singer Johnny Johnson (who isn’t tied to the cast list here), offering her a place in that radio contract. Hayworth and Bellwood arrive too, unsettling Johnson because of Hayworth’s unwelcome advances toward her. At the table, Johnson’s boyfriend and press agent Reed Ryan Regis Toomey crosses paths with Hayworth, and Hayworth casually reveals details of his failed engagement to Ryan. The confrontation escalates when Sturdevant punches Hayworth after the blurted confession, setting off a chain of rumors about revenge and notoriety in Hollywood’s social circles.

Rumors swirl that Hayworth might seek retribution, and Johnson follows him home, while Plaice makes a quiet visit to Hayworth’s residence. A loyal butler lets her in, but claims he must leave briefly, leaving Plaice to wait inside. Bellwood brings Hayworth home later that night, only to find him unconscious from drink, and the next room holds Plaice’s presence as a quiet, unanticipated witness. The catastrophe deepens when Hayworth’s butler discovers him dead on the couch from a gunshot wound, and police quickly narrow their suspicion to Plaice, who admits she was in Hayworth’s home but swears she no longer owns the pistol of the same type used in the murder.

Plaice explains that she had visited Hayworth to turn down his proposal, not to accept it, because her heart still leans toward Sim. Yet the case becomes murkier when the butler who could identify the killer is himself killed—by a shooter using the same gun that killed Hayworth. The trail seems to point in several directions, and Plaice finds herself under intense scrutiny while insisting on her innocence.

As the investigation unfolds, Pilson becomes convinced Plaice is not the culprit. She discovers that Plaice’s prior gun had most likely been stolen by her former butler, and she retrieves the weapon from Plaice’s apartment before the authorities can seize it. Pilson stages a careful trap, openly discussing the gun’s whereabouts and hinting that the former butler who stole it will testify about its sale. The tension snaps when the killer is finally unmasked: Reed Ryan Regis Toomey, whose jealousy over Hayworth’s attentions to Johnson drove him to violent measures. As a devoted collector of Hollywood memorabilia, Ryan had previously purchased the stolen firearm from Plaice’s former servant and used it to divert suspicion away from himself, weaving a web of motive built on ambition, pride, and perceived slights in a city where fame comes at a perilous price.

In the end, the truth is laid bare through a combination of careful deduction, social maneuvering, and the quiet courage of those who refuse to be pawns in a larger, more dangerous game. The film winds through the smoky rooms of clubs, the tense interiors of lavish homes, and the ever-present glare of the media, revealing how love, money, and ambition can collide with violence in a world where people wear their masks as readily as their costumes.