Shadow of Blackmail

Career-slipping movie star Carole Raymond (Kay Francis) buys in as a real estate partner of Jeff Caldwell (Paul Cavanagh). As it happens, through his secretary Nola Reed (Veda Ann Borg), Caldwell runs a matrimonial bureau, and aided by his associate Lee Kirby (John Gallaudet), they defraud and blackmail a large group of lonely people. Carole is unknowingly used as bait for one of their victims, Walter Desmond (Barton Yarborough), who apparently commits suicide. Reporter William Tyler (Robert Shayne) thinks otherwise, and posing as a rich rancher, he contacts Miss Raymond. The latter, now being blackmailed by Caldwell, is forced to persuade Tyler to invest in a fraudulent oil deal. In her own attempt to break the racket, Carole uncovers Mildred Hayes (Teala Loring), another innocent victim of the Desmond case. Despite leading each other on for their own purposes, Carole and Tyler fall in love and combine their efforts.