Crime and Punishment #36

Four men plan a payroll heist at a celluloid factory, with the leader Les using his sister Florrie as the unwitting middleman to collect the loot—but when a watchman stumbles onto the job, gunfire erupts, police swarm the building, and a careless cigarette ignites the highly flammable materials inside. As the robbers scatter and fall one by one, one man sees his chance to vanish into the chaos and make for Missouri, leaving behind the burned bodies and unanswered questions that will haunt the investigation.

Cyril Wyatt, a television script writer desperate for authentic crime material, witnesses a stabbing from an elevated train and rushes to alert the police—only to find himself caught in the middle of a murder investigation that the authorities believe was an accident. As Wyatt insists he saw a red-headed killer, detectives grow skeptical of his story, suspecting he's fabricating details for his show, while the real culprit remains at large and increasingly aware of the one witness who can identify him. The case spirals into danger as Wyatt finds himself in far deeper trouble than he bargained for.

When wealthy manufacturer Bill Dalton meets the charming Janice Greeley, he has no idea she's the bait in an elaborate blackmail scheme orchestrated by Mark Edwards and his crew. As Dalton falls under her spell and the conspirators prepare to capture compromising evidence, their carefully planned extortion plot begins to unravel in unexpected ways. A taut 1951 crime tale about a con that's loaded with as much danger as it promises payoff.

Richard Thull receives threatening phone calls mentioning "Athabaska" and fears for his life, prompting him to call in Inspector Blythe to investigate those closest to him—his secretary Karen Knox, his neighbor George Morgan, his chauffeur Carter, and his household staff. When Thull is found dead in his locked study with a crushed skull and the gas turned dangerously high, the Inspector must piece together which of his suspects committed the murder.