Marlowe

Marlowe, a private eye in Los Angeles, is hired by Orfamay Quest to locate her missing brother Orrin. He accepts the assignment and begins gathering basic details about Orrin’s recent movements. The case centers on clarifying Orrin’s fate and who might want him found or harmed.

Marlowe visits Orrin’s former hotel room and interviews a shady guest named Grant Hicks. He uncovers hints that Hicks knows more than he’s telling and that Orrin’s disappearance is tied to darker activities. The room provides scattered clues linking Hicks to the unfolding crime web.

Shortly after, Hicks phones Marlowe and asks him to hold onto something for a day or two. Marlowe heads to Hicks’s location to secure whatever is at stake and to learn more about the arrangement. The call immediately signals that the case involves stakes high enough for murder.

When Marlowe arrives, he finds Hicks dead, an ice pick buried in his neck. A masked, armed woman then appears, knocks Marlowe out, and escapes, leaving more questions than answers. The sequence introduces a dangerous, unseen antagonist who seems connected to the earlier hotel murder.

Marlowe searches the room and discovers a claim ticket for a roll of photographs. He suspects the images are central to the blackmail and killings plaguing Hicks and others. He tells the police what he knows, but withholds the most critical details.

Marlowe recalls an earlier Brooklyn crime gang led by mobster Sonny Steelgrave and their infamous ice-pick killings, suggesting a possible link to the current murders. He notes the connection is tenuous but worth pursuing as a thematic throughline. The memory broadens the suspect pool and raises the stakes.

Marlowe tracks down the masked woman and learns she is television star Mavis Wald. The photos show Wald in a passionate rendezvous with Steelgrave, tying her to the blackmail scheme. The revelation makes Wald a central figure to the motive behind the killings.

Marlowe questions Wald privately; she hints at being involved but refuses to help him. He then uses his leverage by arranging a contract that ties his pursuit to Wald’s own interests, bringing a professional motive into the equation. The negotiation marks Wald as a player rather than a mere victim.

Steelgrave makes several attempts to threaten, scare, or buy Marlowe off, but Marlowe remains defiant. The confrontations culminate in the death of one erudite Steelgrave henchman, signaling that no one but Steelgrave controls this operation. The mobster’s retaliation escalates the danger for Marlowe.

Orfamay reveals that Orrin is staying at the clinic of Dr. Vincent Lagardie, a connection Marlowe already suspected. He heads to Lagardie’s clinic to press that lead and uncover how Orrin fits into the blackmail scheme. The clinic becomes a pivotal setting for the investigation.

Inside Lagardie’s clinic, the doctor tranquilizes Marlowe briefly but does him no serious harm. Orrin dies after a stabbing by Orrin himself in his final moments, and a photograph found there reveals that Orfamay, Orrin, and Wald are siblings, clarifying the blackmail motive. The discovery reshapes Marlowe’s understanding of who was manipulating whom.

Back at his office, Marlowe destroys the photographs and negatives to protect Wald’s career. Dolores visits, Wald presses to see him at Steelgrave’s home, and Lagardie watches from a distance. The tangled loyalties tighten around Wald, Orfamay, and the remains of the blackmail scheme.

Marlowe confronts Dolores on stage at her nightclub, pressing her about Orrin and the blackmail. Dolores admits to everything in a scathing admission, while Lagardie arrives from offstage. He shoots Dolores and then kills himself, and Marlowe exits the club just before the police arrive.

Marlowe phones the police to report his findings and to ensure the case remains under scrutiny, yet he remains wary of how much he can publicly reveal. He returns to his own office with the messy web of blackmail and murder partially untangled. The film ends with Marlowe continuing to balance truth, loyalty, and his own safety.