Description
George Dumurrier is a wealthy doctor who runs a clinic with his younger brother Henry, but leaves care of his asthma-stricken wife Susan to her sister Marta and a local nurse. He is engaged in an affair with Jane, the personal assistant to Larry, a trendy photographer. Although very much in love with George, Jane is fatalistic about the future of their relationship.
George and Jane travel out of town for a romantic break in Reno. But after arriving at the casino, George receives a phone call from Henry, telling him that Susan has died during a violent asthma attack. Returning home to his plush San Francisco home, George is consoled by Henry, but frozen out by the hostile Marta, who has always disapproved of George marrying her sister. However, a $1 million insurance policy left by Susan is a timely bonus for George's recklessly extended business enterprise. An insurance agent begins tailing George, discovers his affair with Jane, and brings his suspicions to the local police detective, Inspector Wald.
Meanwhile, an anonymous tip-off leads George and Jane to The Roaring Twenties, a strip club where they are both astonished at the appearance of Monica, a stripper who, although a luxuriant blonde, bears an uncanny resemblance to Susan. George is morbidly attracted to her and soon embarks on an affair that is part-detection, part-willing seduction. When the police, who have been tailing him, arrest Monica, she tells them that she was paid to pose as Susan by a woman calling herself Betty. Monica, as the police discover, is a popular fixture lately among the city's high class prostitutes. She has a devoted wealthy client, named Benjamin Wormser, whose hopeless passion she toys with. When Benjamin hears about Monica's arrest, he arrives at the police station with her exorbitant bail, but soon discover that she has already been sprung by someone the police will not name.
A police search led by Inspector Wald of Monica's apartment turns up an envelope containing money. When George's fingerprints are found on the envelope, the police arrest him and charge him with murdering his wife for the life insurance policy. Monica goes missing, and George is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Some months later, on the eve of George's execution, his brother Henry arrives for a visit where in the privacy of an interrogation room, the gloating Henry reveals all that has happened: he and Susan have hatched up this entire plot to get him out of the way and get the insurance money all for themselves. Monica is really Susan all along and faked her own death to implicate him. After Henry leaves, George tries to get a stay of execution by informing his lawyer about what Henry said. But despite some last-minute investigation by Inspector Wald, George is unable to clear his name. Only Jane continues to believe his innocence, but she is held in check by Larry.
The day arrives as George is taken out of his cell to the gas chamber to be executed, still protesting his innocence. At the last moment, a phone rings where the state governor orders the execution halted as a telex arrives at the local FBI office that is forwarded to the prison authorities. In a twist of fate, the French police in Paris have informed the US authorities that Susan and Henry have been shot dead in a local café by the spurned and jealous Benjamin Wormser.
Dr. George Dumurrier is looking for money to expand the San Francisco based clinic he runs with his brother. He is also having an affair with Jane, a glamorous fashion photographer. When Dumurrier's wife Susan dies following an asthma attack, leaving him a million dollar insurance pay-out, it seems that all his problems are solved - until an anonymous phone call sends him to the Roaring 20s strip club where he is astonished to discover that its featured performer, the dangerously desirable Monica Weston, looks exactly like his dead wife. As he tries to unravel this mystery, George learns that the police are now investigating his wife's death and that he is under suspicion of murder.
