Double Exposure

In New York City, James R. Tarlock, a fitness-obsessed publisher of the picture magazine Flick, tells his editor, Larry Burke, to hire Pat Marvin, a small-town Iowa photographer, based on a dramatic photograph of a crashing airplane. After Tarlock leaves, [Larry Burke] fires a photographer for faking a picture. It turns out that Pat’s boyfriend, Ben Scribner, faked her airplane picture. Pat is excited about the job offer. Ben is less enthusiastic about her leaving for the big city, but supports her decision.

Larry is pleased to discover that his new employee is an attractive woman and takes her out to dinner. Pat seizes an opportunity by taking photographs of Dolores Tucker, the wife of the wealthy, many-times-married businessman Sonny Tucker, lying on the floor of the restaurant’s ladies’ room after a suicide attempt. For a follow-up, Pat disguises herself as a chorus girl to gain entrance to Sonny’s apartment. Dolores walks in shortly afterward and becomes jealous. Pat has to knock her out with a punch to get away, taking pictures of Dolores and Sonny before and after.

Pat invents a brother named Ben Scribner to fend off Larry’s amorous advances. To Pat’s surprise, the real Ben follows her to New York. When Larry walks in on them, Pat introduces her “brother.” Ben reluctantly goes along with the deception. He decides to stay in New York, and talks Larry into giving him a job.

Meanwhile, Sonny asks Pat to marry him, after he divorces Dolores. Dolores makes a scene when she finds them together at a nightclub. Larry finds out about Ben and does not believe Pat when she says she was planning to tell him. In anger, he sends Ben on an assignment, one that (unbeknownst to him) puts him aboard a ship bound for Russia. Tarlock assigns Pat to take a series of photographs of a fake murder for the magazine’s readers to try to solve. However, the photo of Pat, as the “victim”, looks just like a real police photo of the dead Dolores, slumped face down on a couch. Pat is indicted for murder.

Larry tries to get Ben back to corroborate Pat’s story, but learns that Ben was not among the survivors when his ship was torpedoed. Larry proves that Sonny killed Dolores. Afterward, Larry breaks up with Pat, guilt-ridden over Ben’s death. Then Ben shows up and punches him. It turns out Ben spent twenty days on a raft with another woman and married her.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:03