Larry Burke (Chester Morris) works for James R. Turlock (Richard Gaines) and Flick Magazine. Turlock sees a picture photographed by a small-town fledgling photographer from Iowa and decides to hire the photographer for his New York based magazine. The photographer, Pat Marvin (Nancy Kelly) turns out to be a young woman.
Pat leaves her hometown and her wanna be boyfriend, Ben Scribner (Phillip Terry) for the big city. What Turlock and Larry don’t know is that the photograph was faked. Pat is determined to make it in New York on her own real talent. Larry tries to put the moves on Pat by taking her out to dinner.
At the restaurant she meets Sonny Tucker (Charles Arnt) and his wife, Dolores (Jane Farrar). Sonny is rich and well known for marrying and divorcing women. He views Dolores as the next in line. When Dolores makes a suicide attempt at the restaurant, Pat gets a picture of it. Pat then goes to Sonny’s apartment to get some more photographs and has a run in with Dolores. Sonny starts looking at Pat as the next Mrs. Tucker and ends up giving her a key to the apartment.
To keep Larry at arm’s length Pat tells him that her brother Ben came with her to New York. When Ben Scribner shows up Larry thinks that he is Pat’s brother. To get in good with Pat, Larry gives Ben a job at the magazine. Ben and Pat are assigned to do a photo spread of a feature for the magazine. The feature is about a murder and the pictures are clues to how to solve it. Pat poses as the murder victim.
Larry finds out who Ben really is and, jealous, sends him on a long-term assignment. Then, when Dolores is found dead in the same position as the fake photo, Pat is suspected of killing her. With Ben gone there is no one to confirm that the photo taken at Sonny’s apartment is really Pat and that she is innocent of Dolores’ murder.
“Double Exposure” was released in 1944 and was directed by William Berke. It is an American mystery crime film and a comedy. The film is one of dozens of mystery comedy romcoms churned out during the forties and is in the public domain.
I couldn’t find anything special here to keep me interested in the film. The movie started out silly and, for me, went downhill from there. It is ridiculous to the point where characters will break the fourth wall occasionally. It starts out rather farcical but somehow morphs into something that tries to be serious and dramatic. For those that are into goofy and preposterous “B” movies, this will do nicely.