Tell No Tales (1939)

Michael Cassidy is the managing editor of a small newspaper which is about to be closed down by its new owner, Matthew Cooper, who owns another newspaper in the city and only bought the second one to get rid of the competition. There has been a kidnapping in the city and at a saloon Cassidy gets one of the $100 bills paid in ransom; he begins to trace the bill backwards step-by-step to get to the kidnappers. He is aided by schoolteacher Ellen Frazier, the only eyewitness. Each step leads to its own miniature drama: to widow Ruby Alley at her dead prizefighter husband's wake; to Arno, owner of a gambling house, who discovers that his brother, the casino's cashier, is involved in the kidnapping; to a a husband who isn't thrilled to learn that his wife has been cheating on him. Will Michael find the kidnappers?