Gay Holloway, daughter of police captain Holloway, models dresses for designer Maxine at the home of upper class socialite Julia Thorndyke. There, she meets Julia’s fiancé, Kirk Underwood, Jr., with whom Julia has an open relationship. Although they are free to see other people, they know they will eventually marry in order to unite their two powerful families. Underwood asks Gay out, and soon they are dating on a regular basis. Underwood then fixes up a beachfront bungalow for their use and promises to marry Gay. She gives him her virtue, believing he will soon break his engagement with Julia. Meanwhile, Gay’s childhood friend, insurance salesman Jim McGuire, follows the couple to the bungalow and accuses Underwood of compromising Gay, but she insists they will be married soon. Underwood, however, tires of Gay and plans a trip to Europe, then asks Julia to marry him there, secretly. When Gay is asked to model a wedding dress for Julia, she realizes Underwood has lied to her. Julia insinuates that Gay was merely a “knick-knack” that Underwood picked up and played with for a while. In a desperate fury, Gay goes to the beachhouse and attempts to shoot Underwood. He calls the police, who are used to getting him out of jams with women, and Captain Holloway arrives to force the girl with the weapon out of the closet. The girl is of course his own daughter, and Holloway shoots Underwood dead on the spot, then puts liquor in his mouth to make it appear that he and Holloway had a drunken quarrel. Gay and her father both confess to the murder, and the police tell Holloway “dead men don’t swallow,” proving his version of the story false. Knowing his daughter is liable to die in the electric chair, Holloway gets permission to re-enact the crime. After hours of repeated re-enactment, Holloway finally breaks his daughter’s silence, and she confesses the real nature of the crime. In court, Holloway pleads his own defense, asking the jury, “What would you do?” More on Wikipedia
Watch Disgraced! (1933)
