Anne Cabell, working as a dancer at a nightclub goes to confront a man who is blackmailing her friend with incriminating letters. When he is killed, she comes under suspicion of murder. However it turns out that he was a foreign spy, and she had nothing to do with his slaying.
The story starts with a prologue set in 1889 in which we see an angry husband murdering his wife's lover. The setting then moves to 1929, just as an antiques dealer Philip Vantine (John St. Polis) has finished moving into the same house where the 1889 murder occurred.
Harry Larrabee, a young playwright, lives in the same studio apartment house with Carolyn Vaughn, a painter of miniatures, with whom he falls in love. "The Wolf," a famous criminal, supposed to be dead, returns and communicates with his wife, a friend of Carolyn's. He forces his wife and her brother to aid him in a plot to rob Carolyn of her valuable jewels. Harry, by one of his famous "inspirations," discovers that a crime is being committed, rescues Carolyn and bears her away in a taxicab. He is himself suspected of the crime, but, undisturbed by the web of circumstance by which he is entangled, his wonderful inspirations give him the key to the conspiracy which led up to the crime. In an unusual and powerful finale the guilty parties fight among themselves and justice triumphs in an exciting climax.
A condemned man uses hypnotism on a judge. After the man's death, the judge finds himself acting like the condemned man.
Sonya, a Marseilles Cafe performer involved with a pack of thieves is rescued from her criminal life by a police official who sends her lover and partner in a knife-throwing act to jail and then tries to seduce her. Not submitting to the official's advances, she falls in love with an Apache dancer in Paris and works with him, holding her other admirer at a distance. The official is mysteriously killed, presumably by her lover, it then falls to Sonya to find the real felon.
Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.
Drama critic Stanley Ormsby, after giving a new play a negative review finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery involving some of the play’s troupe all occurring around Apartment 29.
Gordon Kingsley lives happily with his wife Dorothy and little daughter Mary Jane. On visiting the home of San Francisco architect Frank Mason, he is shocked to discover a portrait of his own wife and daughter. Suspecting the worst of Dorothy, he hires a private detective....
A woman is murdered during an overnight train ride and a veteran detective clashes with young P.I. on how they are going flush out the killer. They find themselves racing against the clock when a second body is discovered.
A fancy masquerade party is the scene of a jewel robbery, and later several suspects in the robbery are discovered to be aboard the same train.
Farmer Allen Golyer finds his romance with his naïve sweetheart Susie usurped by Bertie Leon, a traveling salesman. Leon's slick, citified ways win the girl's heart and she leaves Golyer for him . Just then Golyer's friend, Colonel Blood, shows up with a sapling which he presents to him. Leon meanwhile leaves the little country village and is never heard from again. Susie, believing that he was fickle, agrees to marry Golyer. For the next 20 years they are happy, until Golyer goes to a seer.
At a reception given at the Rogers mansion in his honor, Somerset Carroll surprises the guests by saying he would aid a female convict reported to have escaped. Later he does just that when he finds the girl in the library, taking her to his own house. There she reveals herself to be socialite Helen Rogers, playing a game with him on the advice of her guests. He then declares himself a crook, holding the real Carroll prisoner, with the intention of robbing the Rogers mansion. She follows and shields "The Magnet" from the police, the real Carroll having escaped and notified them, and through her interference he eludes his would-be captors.
A poor man refrains from proposing to the woman he loves until he can secure the fortune left him by his uncle. Believing the treasure awaits in his uncle's abandoned mansion, he begins searching... only to uncover mystery, murder, and a killer ape.
Hard-working insurance company bookkeeper John Carter, comes home Easter eve to his suburban cottage with a potted lily for his loving wife and two daughters. The Carters live happily until cashier Charles Ryder is murdered by the night watchman, a "coke sniffer" in need of money, and Carter is accused because he worked with Ryder that evening.
When a good-for-nothing man named Dan is stabbed to death and his arm broken, Charlie Chan is on the case. His first clue comes from the victim's sister, who noticed a prowler wearing a glow-in-the-dark wristwatch.
A gang of crooks are employed to get possession of valuable papers of international importance, held by the French Ambassador, Vicomte de Jarlais. They are also instructed to get the Ambassador out of the way and make it appear that he has committed suicide. His mysterious disappearance arouses the United States Secret Service officers
Old Silas Blackburn, a wealthy recluse, lives alone with his butler and his ward Katherine. One night, Katherine discovers Silas murdered in the room where three generations of Blackburns have mysteriously died. Silas' grandson Robert, whom Katherine loves, comes to visit the next day, suffering from amnesia.
Episode of Grant, Police Reporter
A convicted murderer has been sentenced to death in the electric chair. He decides to spill the name of the man who hired him, but just before he does he's killed by a poison dart. A police detective and a pretty young newspaper reporter team up to find out the identity of the man behind the killings.
While touring Algiers, Mrs. Osborne and her daughter, Winnifred, make the acquaintance of Schuyler Van Norden, a young American banker. At a little booth, Mrs. Osborne purchases "The Moonstone of Fez." On their way to their hotel, Winnifred and her mother are accosted by a beggar, who seizes Mrs. Osborne's hand and insists upon telling her fortune. The following night they retire in adjoining rooms. In the morning, Winnifred is frightened to find her mother has mysteriously disappeared.