Fallen Angel (1945)

Eric Stanton is a penniless drifter whose smooth talk, which includes telling little white lies, gets the occasional free meal here and bed in which to sleep there. Wanting to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he, on his limited funds, is only able to get as far as the coastal town of Walton, 150 miles shy of his intended destination. Beyond getting that food and shelter, he plans to make enough money in Walton to get out of town as quickly as he came. He changes his plan when he meets Stella, a waitress a Pop's Diner, she a young, beautiful but world wary woman who wants a better life for herself. That beauty is what attracts her to man after man who hangs out at Pop's, they including aged Pop himself, former New York City Police Inspector Mark Judd who moved to the west coast with his wife for health reasons, Dave Atkins, who stocks the jukebox at Pop's, and now Eric himself. Despite all the others clamoring for her time and attention, Eric believes he can be the one to win her by convincing her to marry him when he comes into a financial windfall. Using his association with Professor Madley, a traveling charlatan psychic with who he made a connection when he first arrived in town, Eric discovers that the Mills sisters, Clara and June, are worth $25,000, that windfall money which he plans to swindle especially out of younger June by romancing her. The problem is now more suspicious Clara who lost a good deal of the family wealth in being previously taken by someone much like Eric himself. Eric's plan hits an obstacle when he is possibly implicated in murder.