No Place for a Lady

No Place for a Lady is a 1943 black and white mystery film, directed by James P. Hogan. Plot At a warehouse in Los Angeles, trucks are loaded with stacks of tires to be delivered to a San Francisco warehouse. On a country road under cover of darkness, the tires are transferred to Joe Wembley (Frank M. Thomas), an underworld figure and operator of a nightclub at the beach. With the $50,000 earned from the transaction, Evelyn Harris (Doris Lloyd), who inherited the tire business from her late husband, plans to marry Eddie Moore (Jerome Cowan), a singer at Wembley's café. The two lovebirds head for New York City, but Moore insists on stopping at an unoccupied cottage he notices from the road. In San Francisco private detective Jess Arno (William Gargan) succeeds in clearing actress Dolly Adair (Phyllis Brooks) of a murder charge and becomes a media sensation. After the trial is over, Jess rushes to phone his sweetheart, June Terry (Margaret Lindsay), a real estate agent at the shore. June, jealous of Dolly, is upset when Jess informs her that he plans to shield Dolly from the reporters by hiding her at his beach cottage. Randy Brooke (Dick Purcell), a reporter and a rival for June's affections, convinces her to play a practical joke. They take a wax model to Jess's cottage and stick a knife in the figure's throat. Jess and Dolly arrive at the cottage and are horrified to find blood stains and a body of a woman in the cellar. Hurrying to Wembley's café nearby, they telephone Capt. Baker (Thomas E. Jackson) at police headquarters. When the officers arrive, accompanied by Randy and June, the body is missing and the dummy lies in its place. Believing that it is all a publicity hoax, the police ridicule Jess as a "front page detective."