Star of Midnight (1935) Plot Summary Explained

Mary Smith vanished because she is actually Alice, the missing woman Tim Winthrop had been searching for. When Tim recognized her during the show and blurted out the name 'Alice,' the sudden revelation forced her to flee before anyone could connect her to the disappearance in Chicago. The masked performance gave her the perfect cover to escape unnoticed.

Foreshadowing: Earlier in the show, Mary Smith's mysterious masked identity and dramatic stage presence hint that she has reasons to hide her true self.

• mary smith
• alice
• vanish
• midnight show
• disappearance

Tommy Tennant was shot because he claimed to have a vital clue about the Alice mystery. He was about to reveal what he knew when someone silenced him permanently. Since he was in Dal's suite, Dal became the prime suspect, though the real killer used this opportunity to frame him while eliminating a potential witness.

Foreshadowing: The urgency of Tennant's claim to have important information sets up the danger that follows.

• tommy tennant
• shot
• killed
• clue
• murder

Robert Classon was the killer because Alice possessed information that could incriminate him. Jerry, Classon's wife, had carried on affairs with both the Chicago murder victim and the man accused of killing him. Alice had fled Chicago to avoid testifying, and Classon knew she could expose his involvement in the original murder case. He needed to silence her to protect himself from being linked to the crime.

Foreshadowing: The reveal that Jerry's tangled affairs connected to the Chicago murder case hints at Classon's desperate need to keep Alice quiet.

• robert classon
• killer
• motive
• alice
• chicago murder

Alice fled Chicago a year before the events in New York because she was afraid to testify. She hated the man who ruined her father, and when that man was murdered, she knew she would be called as a witness. Rather than face the legal proceedings and confrontation, she disappeared, eventually resurfacing in New York under the stage name Mary Smith.

Foreshadowing: The mystery of Alice's sudden disappearance from Chicago establishes her as someone with serious reasons to hide.

• alice
• chicago
• disappear
• flee
• testify

Dal became the prime suspect because Tennant was shot in Dal's own suite, making it appear as though Dal had something to hide or was eliminating a witness. The circumstances pointed directly to him, but Inspector Doremus didn't fully believe in his guilt and allowed him to continue investigating while remaining a suspect.

Foreshadowing: The quick assumption of Dal's guilt sets up the tension between the police investigation and Dal's own pursuit of the truth.

• clay dalzell
• suspect
• tennant
• murder
• suite

The letters Dal obtained through blackmailing gangster Jim Kinland were meant to embarrass Donna Mantin. However, Dal discovered the letters actually belonged to a friend of Donna's, not to Donna herself. This revelation cleared Donna of any suspicious motive and showed the investigation had been following false leads.

Foreshadowing: Dal's willingness to use morally questionable methods to retrieve the letters hints at his desperate approach to solving the case.

• letters
• kinland
• donna
• blackmail
• retrieve

Dal staged a ruse by pretending Mary Smith would be at a Greenwich Village apartment, sending each suspect notice that she would meet them at his suite. The plan relied on a simple logic: innocent suspects would go to Dal's suite expecting to meet Mary, while the guilty party would rush to the apartment to silence her before she could talk. When Classon arrived at the apartment instead of the suite, his guilt was exposed.

Foreshadowing: The earlier false leads and misleading clues were designed to build toward this calculated trap.

• greenwich village
• trap
• classon
• ruse
• killer

Jerry, Dal's old flame now married to lawyer Robert Classon, visited him because her husband was also searching for Alice. Classon believed Alice could provide an alibi for his client, a man convicted of murder in Chicago. Jerry's visit revealed the tangled web connecting the Chicago murder case to Alice's disappearance and Classon's desperate search.

Foreshadowing: Jerry's complicated past with affairs involving both the murder victim and the accused killer establishes her as a key link to understanding Classon's motives.

• jerry
• classon
• visit
• dal
• alice
• chicago

Yes, Mary Smith and Alice were the same person. Alice had been missing since disappearing from Chicago a year earlier. She had adopted the stage name Mary Smith and was working as a masked actress in the Broadway show 'Midnight.' When Tim Winthrop recognized her during the performance and called out her real name, it triggered the chain of events that led to the mystery being solved.

Foreshadowing: The mysterious masked performer captivation of the audience foreshadows her true identity being hidden in plain sight.

• mary smith
• alice
• same person
• identity
• stage actress

Dal marries Donna because their investigation brought them together and revealed their genuine feelings for each other. Throughout the case, Donna supported Dal's efforts and stood by him despite his involvement as a murder suspect. With the mystery solved and Classon revealed as the killer, Dal's future takes a positive turn as he commits to Donna, blending romantic happiness with professional triumph.

Foreshadowing: Donna's romantic hopes for Dal were established early when she teamed up with him to find Alice.

• donna
• marry
• dal
• romance
• wedding
• ending