Eddie Delaney (Damian O’Flynn) is a private detective. In a few days he is scheduled to report for duty at his local recruitment center. Eddie's father, Timothy Delaney (Robert Homans) is a sergeant in the police force. While walking home one night, Sergeant Delaney comes upon some gangsters in the middle of a racketeering enterprise and is shot dead.
When the U.S. entered WWII, rubber became a valuable commodity. With Japan trying to take over Southeast Asia, most of the rubber plantations became unavailable in the U.S. market. Items like tires for jeeps, gas masks and rubber life rafts were in short supply. Rubber became hot and the men, who were alcohol bootleggers during prohibition, became black market agents for anything in short supply.
When Eddie finds out that his father has been murdered, he vows to find the killer and bring him to justice. Eddie is approached by John J. Underwood (Neil Hamilton). Underwood says that two of his truck drivers were beaten up and their trucks stolen. Underwood says that the trucks were empty, but he still wants to know who stole them. Eddie tries to talk to the truck drivers, but they end up shot and killed. Lots of people are dropping like flies. Crooks are ripping off other crooks and anyone who gets in the way is eliminated. Eddie begins to believe that all of these events are related.
Linda Ward (Helen Parrish) works at a multiphone juke box company that pipes music to various clubs, restaurants, diners and cafes. A person can put a nickel into a slot and a voice coming from a speaker engages the person on the other end. The person requests a song and the employee at the music company plays the record. Eddie has a fondness for the sound of Linda’s voice and so he spends much of his time putting money in the slot just to hear her talk. When someone uses the music company’s system to initiate a fake blackout to cover the murder of someone involved in the black-market enterprise, Linda ends up in the middle of the investigation and a target.
“X Marks the Spot” was released in 1942 and was directed by George Sherman. It is a low budget “B” American mystery thriller.
Reference is made to the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 18th amendment was proposed in 1917. The amendment was the establishment of the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was ratified in 1919. Prohibition ended in 1933.
This was a fun little movie. There’s lots of action going on. It includes some car chases, several murders, fist fights, and police raids. It is reminiscent of Saturday afternoon movie serials. The plot isn’t all that involved or that complicated but it has a lot of moving parts that work quite well together.