Open Secret

Krimi / drama, USA, 1948, 68 min.



Dynamite Drama!...will smash you right between the eyes!
When newly-weds Paul and Nancy Lester arrive in the city, they phone Paul's army buddy Ed Stevens, who checks with his landlady, Mrs. Tristram, and invites them to stay him him. Ed receives another phone call and, before he goes out to meet the caller, conceals a roll of film in a drawer. Paul and Nancy show up that night but, by the next morning, Ed has not returned. The couple goes out to take some photographs in the neighborhood and, when they return to Ed's, they discover that the apartment has been burgled. After Nancy finds some racist pamphlets among Ed's belongings, they receive a phone message from someone saying that Ed wants to meet them at a nearby intersection. Paul decides to go alone and, as he leaves, meets Larry Mitchell from "Snap Magazine," who tells him that Ed has some important information for him. Mitchell and Paul both wait for Ed who does not show up. At the apartment, meanwhile, a man enters but runs off when Nancy screams. Later, Paul reports the sequence of events to police sergeant Mike Frontelli. As they talk, a large rock is thrown through a window of the house across the street where a Mrs. Fisher, whose husband was killed the week before by a hit-and-run driver, lives. When Paul takes his film to Harry Strauss's camera shop for developing, he accidentally mixes Ed's roll in with his. As he leaves the shop, Paul discovers that some kids have slashed a tire on Strauss's car. Strauss tells Paul and Nancy that his car has been vandalized three times as part of a neighborhood antisemitic campaign. After Paul helps him to change the tire, the newlyweds meet a Mrs. Hill who asks them why they patronize Strauss's shop. She states that Strauss should "move elsewhere, with his own sort." Later, Sgt. Frontelli summons Paul to the morgue, where he indentifies Ed's body. Frontelli tells him that, although Ed was run over by a truck, he had already been murdered. When Fisher's body was found, Frontelli explains, he was holding on to the torn sleeve of a striped shirt, the same shirt Ed was wearing. After Ed's funeral, Paul and Nancy tell Mrs. Tristram that they will be leaving the next day. Paul tells Nancy that he saw a torn shirt in one of Ed's drawers and that, after the break-in, the shirt was missing and Ed was found wearing it. This causes Paul to think that Ed may have been framed. While pretending to be one of the group, Ed had photographed them with a concealed camera in order to expose their activities. Believing he might obtain some information there, Paul goes to a neighborhood bar frequented by Ed. The bartender complains about Ed's death, blaming it on "foreigners," while Locke, another patron, slaps his wife when she tries to get him to stop drinking and return home. Nancy goes to the camera shop to pick up Paul's photos but, after Harry's assistant, Ralph, sees a shot of two people painting "Jew" on the window of the store among the photos, he tells her they are not ready yet. However, Harry finds them and gives them to Nancy. Ralph goes to the apartment to retrieve the photos, but Paul opens the envelope and finds his own photos and will not return them. After Ralph leaves, however, Paul finds the incriminating pictures Ed has taken of the group's racist activities. Paul recognizes Locke in one of the photos and goes to see Mrs. Locke, who tells him, despairingly, that her husband is perpetually drunk and blames all his problems on "kikes and wops." She also tells Paul that he and and a friend named Mace were trying to get Ed to help them run Jews out of the neighborhood and she states that she saw Ed, Locke and Mace run down Fisher with Mace's car. Ed got out and tried to help Fisher, but the others slugged him. After Paul promises Mrs. Locke that he will protect her, Locke enters, gun drawn. Paul offers him a deal and shows him an incriminating photo Ed took of him setting a fire. While Locke examines the photo, Paul hits him with a vase. They struggle but Paul is overpowered by Mace, who has been watching through a window. Meantime, Nancy shows Harry the photos and he suggests that she hide them until they can be handed over to Mitchell. Harry thinks Paul may be at the bar and goes there to check while Nancy phones Frontelli. Mace and Carter, one of the group's leaders, realize that Nancy must have the photos, and when Harry is taken into the bar's backroom, he finds Paul being held by Ralph and the others. Harry tells Carter that Nancy gave him the prints and negatives for safekeeping at his shop, so Harry is forced to return there. The group then decides to kill Paul, even though he tells them that Frontelli knows they killed Fisher and Ed. At the shop, Harry tricks Hill, his captor, and they have a fistfight. The others tie Paul's hands behind his back and stop by the shop, where Ralph tries to go to Harry's aid. Frontelli arrives and arrests the entire group, who blame their activities on Phillips, a ward heeler. Meantime, Mitchell calls on Nancy to pick up the photos to use in his magazine's exposé. However, Mitchell is really Phillips, the ring leader, and Nancy become suspicious of him. Paul and Frontelli arrive as Nancy and Mitchell are struggling for possession of the photos. Mitchell jumps through a window and runs up an alley but is shot by Frontelli. Frontelli phones the police station and calm returns to the neighborhood.
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