The Mad Miss Manton

A daffy socialite (Barbara Stanwyck) gets her friends mixed up in a murder investigation in The Mad Miss Manton (1938).

Editor Peter (Henry Fonda), with assistant (George Chandler), has just published a piece mocking the criminal antics of society gal Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) who introduces herself with a lawsuit, in The Mad Miss Manton, 1938.

Opening scene, surely aimed at male Barbara Stanwyck fans, she (as "Melsa Manton") arrives at her Manhattan apartment at 4 a-m to walk her dogs, encountering trouble and eventually cop Brent (Sam Levene), in director Leigh Jason's The Mad Miss Manton, 1938.

Busted for a murder they didn't commit, Melsa (Barbara Stanwyck) and her socialite pals (Linda Perry, Frances Mercer, Whitney Bourne et al) get grilled by cop Brent (Sam Levene) and more sympathetic newsman Peter (Henry Fonda), who does them a good turn, in The Mad Miss Manton, 1938.