Shoot to Kill

(1947)

64 minutes.

Film / Crime / Drama

Directed by William A. Berke

Cast: Russell Wade, Susan Walters and Edmund MacDonald

When the police reach the site of the car crash, a car they've been chasing through the night and exchanging gunfire with, they find Lawrence Dale, the man who will become District Attorney in the morning, his wife Marian, and the notorious gangster Dixie Logan. Dale and Logan are dead. Marian is rushed to a hospital seriously injured. What's going on? Shoot to Kill revolves around three characters: Lawrence Dale, a corrupt and ambitious assistant district attorney; Marian Langton, who shows up one morning looking for a job as Dale's secretary; and Mitch Mitchell , a smart, crime-fighting reporter for The Evening Register. With the ailing DA about to step down, we learn that his replacement, Dale, is in cahoots with gangsters, and that they intend to run the town. But Dale makes a mistake. To put away Dixie Logan on a murder charge, a step that will enhance his reputation as a crime-fighter, Dale manufactures false evidence and bribes two witnesses. It's not long before Logan has busted out of jail with payback in mind. Then Dale starts getting romantic with his new secretary, a woman with a mind of her own. And to top it off, as Dale and his gangster partners plot murder, ace reporter Mitchell gets on their trail.