Aboard a cruise ship, American criminal attorney Steven Kennedy falls head over heels in love with Joan Manners and romantically proposes marriage to her time and again. Although she is in love with him, Joan does not accept his proposal until she discovers that he adopted and reared Constance, the daughter of his deceased best friend. Joan realizes that Connie is the daughter whom she abandoned years earlier in order to explore more fully the pleasures of life. However, she does not share this secret with Steven, as he utterly deplores the thought of Connie’s mother. Steven returns home and excitedly relates the news of his engagement to the vivacious Connie and his friend, Schuyler Durkin. Durkin, who has been trying to seduce Connie, later visits his lover, who is Joan. She has already changed the locks on the door and reveals to him her marriage plans. Schuyler threatens to reveal their relationship to Steven if she does not marry him, and when she refuses, he follows through with his threat. Steven is shocked and disappointed and without explanation cancels his plans to introduce Connie to Joan that night. Connie, who is leaving that night for a year-long yacht trip with friends, impulsively goes to Joan’s apartment and introduces herself. The women immediately become friends, and Joan confides in Connie about her relationship with Schuyler. Joan goes to Steven and defames Schuyler’s character so that Steven will renew his proposal. When she returns to her apartment, she finds Connie drunk and, concerned that the girl will follow in her footsteps, sends her off to catch her yacht. Connie, however, heads for Schuyler’s apartment to retrieve an incriminating love letter that Joan sent him from Paris. She lets herself in with a key that Schuyler hoped she would use for a romantic tryst. Connie gets the letter, but when she tries to leave, Schuyler amorously prevents her. Panicking, she tries to scare him with a gun and accidentally shoots him. Joan arrives shortly thereafter, and sends Connie to her yacht, remaining with Schuyler, who dies just as the police arrive. Joan is arrested and convicted, despite Steven’s able defense, and is sentenced to execution at Sing Sing. Joan remains silent about Connie’s involvement and is being prepared for her death when Connie returns home from her trip. Shocked to find out the result of the shooting, Joan confesses to the district attorney that she shot Schuyler in self-defense. Joan receives a stay of execution and is released from prison, and she, Steven and Connie are finally a family. More on Wikipedia
Watch Her Mad Night also known as Held For Murder (1932)
