Shakedown
Cast & Crew
David Selman
Lew Ayres
Joan Perry
Thurston Hall
Victor Kilian
Henry Mollison
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Bob Sanderson, an unemployed engineer, is in love with Edith Stuart, daughter of G. Gregory Stuart, the boss of the Great Western Telegraph Co. Edith persuades Bob to overcome his reluctance to ask her father for a job, and he accepts the position of messenger boy, which pays twenty dollars per week. After a month of hard work, Stuart calls Bob in and offers him a job as commercial contact. Sensing it is simply to ensure that Edith has support, Bob rejects the offer, and although angered, Stuart respects Bob for his decision. Meanwhile, Stuart's secretary, Ralph Gurney, is pressured by gangsters Hawsley and Spud to pay off his $5,000 gambling debt. Stuart rejects Ralph's request for an advance, since he disapproves of his gambling habit. Ralph comes up with a plan to help himself and Edith as well. He suggests to Edith that they fake her own kidnapping in order to cause Stuart to recognize Bob's worth and provide him with the money. However, when Edith is kidnapped by Hawsley and Spud she becomes afraid, grabs Hawsley's gun and shoots him. Unaware of the ruse, Bob arrives at the club according to Ralph and Edith's plan. He sees a car leave and finds Hawsley's body, but when the police arrive, the corpse has disappeared, and the caretaker claims that Bob imagined it all. The next day, Edith confesses her predicament to her father, who consults Ralph. Bob meanwhile realizes the entire incident was a hoax: In having his apparently blood-soaked clothes cleaned, he learned it was only red ink. When Bob, Edith, the police and newspaper reporter Presto Mullins arrive at the club, a search reveals Hawsley's corpse in the dumbwaiter. Stuart is about to pay off Ralph and Spud, who want $50,000 for their silence, when Bob calls to tell him the news. Bob and the police rush to the Stuart home and arrive in time to hear Ralph confess to Hawsley's murder. A chase to the airport ensues, in which Bob jumps on the wing of the waiting aircraft to prevent Ralph's escape. Afterwards Stuart consents to the couple's marriage and gives Bob the position he wants and a $4,000 salary that will force his spoiled daughter to change her expensive taste.
Director
David Selman
Cast
Lew Ayres
Joan Perry
Thurston Hall
Victor Kilian
Henry Mollison
John Gallaudet
George Mckay
Gene Morgan
Wyrley Birch
William Gould
Wade Boteler
Edward Le Saint
Olaf Hytten
George Offerman Jr.
Arthur Loft
Murdock Macquarrie
George French
Helen Dickson
Jack Dougherty
Lee Shumway
Bruce Mitchell
Lee Prather
Dick Allen
Frank Bull
Ralph Mccullough
Maurice Brierre
Albert Pollet
Bob Burns
Albert J. Smith
Edmund Cobb
Hal Price
Harry Hollingsworth
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Night Wire. The Variety review notes that Joan Perry made her debut in a lead role in this film, after having been a photographer's model in New York.
