Monday, November 12, 2018

The Inner Circle (1946)

The Inner Circle is a crime drama starring Warren Douglas as happy go lucky private investigator Johnny Strange (no really). He hires (or is rather forced to hire) a new secretary Geraldine (Adele Mara) who promptly lures him into a trap where he is found with a dead body! He is then knocked out by Geraldine disguised as a widow.

Detective Webb (William Frawley) finds Strange and the corpse (who turns out to be a gossip columnist). Strange is arrested, then Geraldine turns up and says he killed the man in self-defence. Not knowing Geraldine's involvement Strange tries to find out what is really going on...

A fast moving drama with some good performances. The plot is a bit far fetched though nicely complicated, unfortunately it does get a bit absurd. For a supposedly smart PI Strange is rather naive. If you suspend disbelief a bit the film is very enjoyable.