The Inner Circle (1946)

By CinemaSerf

There clearly wasn't much cash for this, but Adele Mara ("Gerry") and Warren Douglas ("Johnny Strange") do their best to make up for that with a quickly-paced crime drama that punches quite a bit above it's weight. He is a PI on the lookout for a new secretary. She volunteers for the role, and soon the pair are caught up in the murder of a radio gossip columnist. Next thing, he's been thumped over the head and has to convince the police he had nothing to do with the killing. There is no absence of suspects for the crime, indeed there might well have been folks in the front row of the cinema who might have killed this, as it turns out, rather scurrilous man. I enjoyed this - it's cheap and cheerful, but builds nicely to an uncomplicated conclusion.