Lady in The Lake - Plot

Plot

Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled private detective Phillip Marlowe (Montgomery) submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the premises to discuss his work, but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. On Christmas Eve, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Totter) hires him to locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Ames). One month earlier, Chrystal Kingsby had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons). Fromsett, however, had recently seen Lavery in neighboring Bay City. It quickly becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself (for his money as she later admits).

When Marlowe goes to see Lavery, the Southerner professes to be unaware of any trip to Mexico. Lavery then sucker punches the detective. Marlowe wakes up in jail, where he is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully) and a very belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot (Lloyd Nolan). When Marlowe refuses to divulge anything about his case, Kane warns him not to cause trouble in his district and releases him.

Marlowe learns that the body of a woman has been recovered from a lake owned by Kingsby, and Kingsby's caretaker there charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe investigates and reports to Fromsett that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend, and that she was hiding from a tough cop - whose description fits DeGarmot.

Marlowe goes to call on Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he instead encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Falbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead, shot several times in the shower. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F".

Before calling the police, he interrupts a Christmas party at the publishing house to confront Fromsett. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby comes in and, after learning that Fromsett hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye. Marlowe immediately gets another job; Kingsby hires him to find his wife.

Marlowe then informs the police of Laverty's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. The two men scuffle, before Kane separates them and sends Marlowe on his way.

Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. It turns out that Muriel had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled it a suicide, but the victim's parents strongly disagreed.

When Marlowe goes to question them, he finds they have been intimidated into keeping silent. Afterwards, he is driven off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, he manages to get to a telephone and call Fromsett for help. She takes him back to her apartment, where she tells him that they have much in common and that she has fallen in love with him.

Kingsby shows up and informs Marlowe he has received a telegram from his wife, asking for money. Marlowe agrees to drop it off, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his life in Fromsett's hands, he instructs her to have the police follow him after ten minutes, following a trail of rice he will leave behind.

The woman Marlowe meets turns out to be Mildred Havelend, alias Mrs. Falbrook and alias Muriel. Havelend was responsible for the murders of Chrystal (the lady in the lake), Florence, and Lavery. DeGarmot had fallen in love with Havelend and helped cover up the first, but she ran out on him. DeGarmot tracks Marlow and Haveland down (having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane and following Marlow's trail of rice grains). DeGarmot plans to kill Marlow and Haveland using Haveland's gun and stage it to look like they shot each other. DeGarmot murders Mildred, but Captain Kane gets there just in time to gun down his own crooked cop. Marlowe and Fromsett leave for New York together to start a life together.