To cover the theft of the Koor-Hal ruby, newspaper editor Phil Bane calls in ace crime reporter George Melville. George arrogantly predicts to his fellow reporters the next crime to occur and is proven correct, as always. When an accident takes place outside the pool hall where the reporters congregate, George follows a suspicious woman, Claire Peyton, whom he sees begging one moment, then exiting a store in fancy dress only minutes later. George forces her to have dinner with him, and during the meal, she explains that she left a cruel husband for another man and then left him. That evening, she explains, she is to be allowed to see her daughter for the first time in years, but upon arrival, at her ex-husband’s house she discovers only a coffin. Claire faints, and George takes her back to his apartment. On awakening, Claire asks him to fetch her daughter’s ring, but when he returns to the house, he finds it locked and the coffin empty. While investigating, he is caught by Blackton Gregory, an apparent lunatic, who reveals that the entire scheme was a practical joke concocted by his jealous newspaper buddies. Next door, meanwhile, the famous Van Hyne painting is stolen by accessories of Gregory, who is actually the famous thief, Belaire. Gregory has convinced everyone except George that he is dead and wants to outwit him. To that end, he is producing a World War I play, called Fury’s Road , starring Claire, while his men dig a tunnel from the theater to a bank across town. Later, George persuades Claire to join him for lunch, then takes her to his apartment for a can of beans. George predicts to Claire that the Sunburst diamond will be stolen on Saturday, and has Phil prepare an extra edition. However, when Claire innocently mentions the prediction to Gregory, he has the date of the play’s opening and the robbery delayed. The morning after the supposed robbery, George enters the newspaper’s office, humiliated, and is fired. Claire tries to cheer a bewildered George, and she and Gregory find him alone on the stage, strangely listless and distracted. Claire, now in love with George, believes he is going insane and sends him to the mountains. When the play opens, the rattle of gunfire in a scene involving trench warfare drowns out the explosions in the nearly completed tunnel. Claire, however, observes Gregory’s strange actions and becomes suspicious. When his henchmen forget the Van Hyne painting, he returns to get it and is captured. Claire fears for George’s life, but learns from Phil that he is fine, having suspected Gregory all along and gone to the police. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Adventure in Manhattan / UK title: Manhattan Madness (1936)
