Crown v. Stevens (1936)

Chris Jensen, the sole clerk at Arthur Stevens, a small construction contracting company, has gotten himself in a financial bind. Blinded by love, he gave an engagement ring to his girlfriend of one month Mamie, and despite she knowing it was only on loan and not yet paid for since Chris did not yet have the money, she promptly ran off with another man and the ring. Maurice Bayleck, the disreputable money lender from who Chris got the ring, will not extend payment to him. Chris was banking on a raise and/or promotion after a year on the job, but Stevens, a spendthrift, denies both on the basis of what he considers the company's tight finances which are solely in his penny-pinching mind. Chris' financial issues take a turn when he finds Bayleck shot to death, he coming face to face with the woman who shot him, she who implies she too was facing the same financial issue in Bayleck putting the squeeze on her. Not knowing what to do between the morally right thing versus not wanting to expose his own debt to Bayleck and not knowing the woman or her story, Chris decides not to go to the police about her. Chris is shocked when he next comes face to face with the woman and discovers she is Doris Stevens, the boss' wife. In the ensuing uncomfortable relationship Chris ends up having with Mrs. Stevens, he begins a burgeoning romance with Molly Hobbes, the proprietress of a home furnishing store and interior design business that Stevens often uses, she who may be a positive influence on Chris in doing the right thing. What they are unaware of is that Mrs. Stevens, who hates her husband in their differences - she a former show girl and a party girl who expected Stevens to provide her an exciting life, which has not been the case - has nefarious plans for her husband so that she can have her cake and eat it too.