Murder!

Diana Baring, a young actress in a travelling theatre troupe, is found in a daze with blood on her clothes, sitting by the murdered body of another young actress, Edna Druce. The poker used to commit the murder is at Diana's feet, but she has no memory of what happened during the minutes that the crime was committed. The two young women are thought to have been rivals, and the police arrest her. Diana withholds some important information deliberately, to protect something about the identity of a man that she will not name. At her trial, most of the jury are certain she is guilty. One or two feel that she may have a severe mental illness which means that she really does have no memory of killing the other woman, but they are convinced that she should still be hanged lest she strike again. One juror, Sir John Menier, a celebrated actor-manager, seems sure she must be innocent, but is brow-beaten into voting "guilty" along with the rest of the jury. Diana is imprisoned, and awaits hanging. Sir John feels responsible, as he had recommended that Diana take the touring job in order for her to get more experience. He discovers Diana has been a fan of his since childhood, and considers her far too honest and straightforward to be a criminal of any kind. Using skills he has learned in the theatre, Sir John investigates the murder with the help of the stage manager Ted Markham and his wife Doucie. They narrow the possible suspects down to a male actor in the troupe, Handel Fane. During a prison visit with Baring, Sir John learns Fane's secret: he is half-caste and passing as white, and Druce had threatened to expose him to Diana, with whom he was in love, neither of them knowing that Diana already knew this. Sir John cunningly tries to lure a confession out of Fane, by asking him to audition for a new play he has been writing. John describes a plot closely resembling the murder, and Fane realises that they know he committed the crime and understand how and why he did it. Fane leaves without confessing and returns to his previous job as a transvestite trapeze performer in a circus. Sir John and the others go there to confront him again. During Fane's performance, he looks down and sees them waiting. Despairing, he knots his access rope into a noose, slips it over his head, and jumps to his death. Sir John and Markham discover Fane had written a confession to the murder before his suicide. At the film's conclusion, Diana is shown free and glamorously dressed in a white fur, entering a beautiful room and being welcomed warmly by Sir John, who receives her lovingly. The camera pulls back and reveals this is the last scene of a new play, possibly the new play, in which Diana stars opposite Sir John. They kiss as the curtain falls.

Plot from Murder!CC BY-SA 4.0