Richard Talmadge
Stuntman Richard Talmadge runs, climbs, fights, falls and everything in between and never wrinkles his suit while chasing jewel thieves.
Blackmailer and thief Lavelle is hiding a pearl necklace inside a pair of shoes and then putting them in a trunk. Coming through the window with a gun is Helen Lloyd (Thelma White). He gets the gun from her, shoots a cop and escapes. Helen manages to slip out unseen.
Dick Manning (Richard Talmadge) goes to a police auction of items recovered fr9m crooks. Helen is there and also members of a gang of jewel thieves. Up for bids is the trunk with the pearls. A man outbids everyone. While paying the auctioneer Helen and the crooks all make note of his address.
That night Manning breaks into the house and so does Helen. Then the crooks show up and Helen hides. Manning convinces them he’s a safe cracker and can get the pearls from the downstairs wall safe. He offers them a fifty-fifty deal. When he gets the necklace from the safe they jump him. He gets the best of them but only for a while. They take the necklace back to Lavelle. It’s glass.
The owner of the pearls is Helen’s sister Marie. She’s married to police commissioner,George Hartley. Marie went to Lavelle’s apartment in a moment of infidelity. Lavelle took the pearls and threatened to blackmail her if she didn’t let him keep them. Helen tells her she couldn’t get them. Marie’s uptight mother-in-law suspects something’s up when Marie says the necklace isn’t back from the jewelers yet after a minor repair. Her anniversary party is tomorrow and she’s supposed to wear them.
Dick snuck into the house and is talking to Helen and Marie when the commissioner walks in. He introduces Manning as one of his finest detectives. All this time they thought he was a crook. When he leaves the room he promises the sisters that he’ll have the necklace back on time and Lavelle put away.
Manning gets the real pearls from the police station and uses himself as bait to get the Lavelle gang. In a brief moment while the gang is in another room at their hideout, Manning hides the pearls in a jar of pipe tobacco. The henchmen take Manning to a warehouse to crack a safe. he manages to send an alarm back to the police station. The crooks can’t hear it at the warehouse. When the cops show up it’s more stunts from Talmadge who ends up in the crooks’ car and the chase is on complete with the coppers using up all the ammo they can and never hit anything.
Before they get back to the hideout where Lavelle is waiting in walks Monty. He’s busted out of jail. Instead of hiding out in the country he wants to get the copper who sent him up…Manning. They don’t know he’s on his way. Looks like the game is over.
More stunts to come and the title is explained at the very end. As always with Talmadge, this is fun. Of course since he goes through virtually the same repertoire in all his movies it’s best to space them out over a few months.
Cult movie fans will recognize Thelma White as Mae the pusher from the 1936 classic “Reefer Madness.”
Thelma White
Vintage45's Blog 