Alex da Silva Wealthy widow Stephanie Bachelor (Muriel) approaches lawyer Tom Keene (Scott) to formally see her through her right to claim her inheritance. Her husband has been missing for 7 years which means he can legally be pronounced dead and his Estate passed onto her. One problem, though, a cheque signed by him turns up at the 11th hour. Is he still alive? Other traces of him start to appear and we have a mystery on our hands. Can Stephie make it to mega-wealthdom? This is an enjoyable film if a bit tricky to follow at the beginning. Who on earth are all these women? By the end of the film, things make sense but it was a bit confusing at the beginning. Some good scenes and a couple of murders in this effort. It has a good setting, a storyline that keeps you watching and some scenes that stick with you afterwards. In fact, the memory of it is probably better than when you are actually watching it! The hunger for money is what drives our main character and she is thoroughly unpleasant which makes a good villainess.I've spoken to lift maintenance workers who have told me of very unusual things found at the bottom of lift shafts, including live piglets. Stephanie Bachelor may have been thinking of a different sort of collection.

XhcnoirX Stephanie Bachelor is the wife of a wealthy author who disappeared 7 years ago, after writing an expose on fraudulent bankers. She thinks it's time to get him declared dead, and hires lawyer Richard Powers. Bachelor admits to her lover George meeker she killed her husband, and after blackmailing banker Russell Hicks for several years, whom she kept out of her husband's book, she feels it's finally time to get her husband's fortune. But then a cheque appears, with her dead husband's signature on it, as well as a jacket belonging to him. Keene follows the trail and comes across Lynne Roberts, who initially helps him. But Bachelor is not the only one with a secret. Clocking in at under an hour, this movie holds more plot than several of these B-programmers combined, while keeping the amount of plot holes respectably low (relatively speaking). It's a lean and mean movie that was made to entertain and that it does reasonably well. And while it doesn't have the typical noir-look (there are some venetian blinds shadows and such, but the interior scenes are remarkably brightly lit for a Republic quickie) it features a femme fatale, blackmail, murder, secret identities and a dead man who may be alive after all. In short, a decent example of an early poverty row noir. Bachelor is good here, and who doesn't enjoy watching a scheming femme fatale work her magic with a sly smile across her face?! Roberts is also decent in a 'girl Friday' type role who turns out to be someone different altogether. Powers, who had worked under the name Tom Keene for over a decade prior to the name-change (his real name's George Duryea, but he's not related to Dan Duryea), is okay but lacks presence and charisma. There is nothing really remarkable about the directing, except for a handful of nicely done voice-overs that are mixed well with spoken words. The movie itself doesn't really stand out overall, but it holds up decently well, and has a fine femme fatale as well as an alternative use for diamond bracelets that your local jeweler will not tell you about. 6/10

melvelvit-1 Statuesque Stephanie Bachelor (the haughty "Princess Nirvena" in LADY OF BURLESQUE) stars as an arch Park Avenue playgirl who wants her missing millionaire husband declared dead. That's easier said than done, however -she knows the guy's a goner because she killed him but now it looks like he's come back ...so what in the hell's going on?A breezy Manhattan murder mystery that would have made a great noir had it come a few years later. It was filmed around the same time as Paramount's DOUBLE INDEMNITY, a much-imitated film from which it can be said the "noir style" sprang after every studio in town began to replicate it and Republic would get in on the action a few years later with a couple of Vera Hruba Ralston noirs (MURDER IN THE MUSIC HALL, THE FLAME) but this 1944 quickie (a fast-paced 58 minutes) has more light than shadow and an ending that's a bit too frivolous ***SPOILER*** (the villainess is only wounded and asks if she can go shopping before being taken away so's she can be the best dressed woman in court) ***END SPOILER*** to fit comfortably in the noir canon. That said, Bachelor's impulsive black widow with her arsenal of murder, attempted murder, blackmail, and sexual seduction is right up there with the best femme fatales Poverty Row had to offer (along with Jean Gillie in DECOY, Janis Paige in NIGHT EDITOR, and Ann Savage in DETOUR) and she looks fabulous in those '40s hairstyles and fashions, too.

Mike Newton I haven't seen this film in years, but there was a clip of it in the Republic Pictures story. Apparently, Stephanie Batchelor has a thing for older wealthy men and she commits the perfect crime by rigging up an elevator so that the door opens to an empty shaft. Saying goodnight to her boyfriend, she pushes the button to the door and gives him a nudge. Don't know how the movie turns out, but I would like to find a copy. I contacted her years ago when she lived in Las Vegas for an autograph. I had a shot of her from the Roy Rogers film, Springtime in the Sierras, where she plays a cold-hearted villainous who shoots an elderly game warden in the stomach. Her line is "This may hurt a little." In a Roy Rogers movie, yet. Man, that's cold.