As the Hotel Continental is about to close its doors forever, a farewell party is in progress throughout the hotel and many guests reminisce about the building. Gangsters Tierney and Mills are waiting for Jim Bennett to arrive. Under the alias A. R. Cooper, Bennett reluctantly registers in room 705 when he finds his preferred room, 707, is unavailable. While receiving a haircut and manicure, Martin, a policeman, reminds Jim that he has been paroled to retrieve stolen money he embezzled and then secreted in the hotel five years earlier. After changing into his evening clothes, Jim rescues a young woman in 708 from apparent suicide. He is attracted to the woman, Ruth Carleton who, unknown to Jim, has been hired by Tierney and Mills. They conspired to imprison Jim and want Ruth to help them locate the hidden money. After Jim buys Ruth some evening clothes in the hotel dress shop, they celebrate downstairs in the grill room. Recognizing their mutual loneliness, they plan a round-the-world trip as they dance. He admits his shady past to her, and she begins to doubt her original mission. She agrees to help him retrieve the money and crash a party given by Mrs. Underwood and her drunken and flirtatious husband Walter in room 705. Befriended by party guest Charlie Layton is Winthrop, an apparently broken man who is actually an actor hired by Jim to feign suicide and help empty the room of its guests. When Ruth tries to back out of Mills and Tierney’s plan because she feels Jim is a decent fellow, they threaten to kill Jim unless she complies. Misunderstanding Jim’s embrace of another woman, she feels double-crossed, and as she helps Jim remove the stolen money from behind a brick in the chimney, she alerts the other crooks. Learning that Jim had kissed the other woman to save Walter from an embarrassing situation, she tries unsuccessfully to thwart the two gangsters from their plan. Jim now thinks Ruth has tricked him as he is knocked unconscious and returned to his room. Retreating to the gangsters’ room, Ruth takes advantage of a blackout throughout the hotel to flee with the money, although she is wounded in the darkness. After she sees Martin arrest the two crooks, she confronts Jim, who is resignedly packing. As she hands over the money, Ruth collapses from her wound. Jim calls for a doctor as well as Martin, expecting he and Ruth will begin anew their relationship. More on Wikipedia
Watch Hotel Continental (1932)
