The Menace 1932

Ronald Quayle, Walter Byron, is an Englishman who is accused of murdering his father, and, based on the testimony of his stepmother, Caroline Quayle, Natalie Moorhead, he is found guilty and imprisoned. After managing to escape, he flees to the United States to work in an oil field, where an explosion scars his face. Following plastic surgery, he returns home under the alias Robert Crockett, determined to prove that Caroline and her lover Jack Utterson, William B. Davidson really killed his father.

Having squandered her inheritance, Caroline has put the Quayle home on the market. Pretending to be a potential buyer, Ronald introduces himself to Caroline. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard Inspector Tracy, H.B. Warner, has assigned Ronald’s former fiancée Peggy Lowel, Bette Davis, to inventory the contents of the house in the hope she will find evidence to clear Ronald’s name.

Ronald initiates a romance with Caroline and, announcing his plan to elope to New York City with her, presents her with a magnificent necklace. At a Halloween party, Ronald plants the necklace on Caroline’s cohort Sam Lewis, Crauford Kent, who is killed by Jack Utterson. He conceals the body in a sarcophagus, and after Ronald finds it he reports his discovery to Inspector Tracy. During the ensuing investigation of the crime, Ronald and Jack fight near a statue of a feathered serpent, which falls on Jack. As he lies dying, he confesses to murdering Ronald’s father and implicates Caroline. Ronald is exonerated, and he and Peggy make plans to marry and settle in Quayle Manor.