- The gorgeous Dianne Adler is a friend of Della who has quit her job when a man signed her to a modeling contract that Perry discovers allows the agent to take half of any money she comes into. When the agent is murdered she is charged.
- Della Street is amazed at her new friend Dianne Adler's ability to eat enormous amounts of food and yet keep her slim figure. Dianne grew up near a relative of Della but she has had a rough childhood with a sick mother and dead father. Della becomes suspicious when she spots a couple of men following Dianne so she calls Perry and Paul. Dianne finally admits to Della that she has signed a contract with promoter Harrison Boring to be the exclusive model for a new clothing line. The only requirement is that she gain 12 pounds. Perry doesn't like the sound of the contract she's signed and confirms his suspicions when he visits Montrose Foster who finds missing heirs in return for a percentage. Paul Drake realizes that Dianne is being followed by another private detective named Dillard hired by Marvin Palmer, who lives with his mother Mrs. Winlock and her husband Mr. Winlock. After Boring is killed, Dianne is charged with murder and it becomes apparent that the Winlocks have a secret they want to protect.—garykmcd
- Paul is on the phone discussing a report with Della when he notices she sounds distracted, so he has her read back part of the report and sneaks over to her office. He finds her trying to exercise while talking on the phone. She has a date with 22-year old Dianne Adler (Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America 1959), who was voted the girl with the most perfectly formed figure in the Smokey Mountains. It makes Della a bit self-conscious, but she's downright jealous at lunch, when she sees how Dianne packs away the food. Later, Della learns that Dianne has quit her job, so she puts Paul on her tail.
He follows her to the beach, where she works on her tan and continues to snack. Soon, Paul bumps into a clumsy P.I. named Dillard (Michael Constantine), who tries to impress Paul with his professional ethics by refusing to name his employer. They see Dianne leave in a car with a man. When Della and Perry meet her later at her apartment, she identifies the man as Harrison Boring (Paul Gilbert), who hired her as a prospective model of clothes for the "teeny bit plumpish". She has a contract that pays her $200 per week and requires her to gain some weight - in the right places. It's her best break since her father died when she was a baby. Perry notes that the contract states that Boring gets half of any additional money Dianne might earn during the run of the contract. Dianne gets a special delivery, but instead of her weekly check, it's a notice that the deal is off. "I've already gained ten pounds!" she whines.
Perry summons Boring to his office with a threat to sue for breach. Perry knows that Boring was until recently employed by Montrose Foster (Vaughn Taylor), who works in the shady fringes of the insurance business. Boring says he's just an idea man who doesn't understand contracts, and tears up Dianne's copy of their contract. This gesture means nothing to Perry, who greets Boring's assurances of returning his copy and making a settlement with stony silence. After Boring leaves, Perry tells Della that the contract clearly had nothing to do with modelling. He goes to see Foster, whom he learns is in the missing heirs racket. This suggests that Dianne has a claim to a big inheritance and that Boring quit to cut himself in with no share for Foster. Paul reports that Boring has been staying at a motel in the nearby town of Fair Oaks, having meetings with the wealthy and mysterious real estate mogul George Winlock (Bruce Gordon). Perry and Paul don't notice Foster eavesdropping.
Perry goes to the Winlock mansion, where he encounters the surly Marvin Palmer (Jonathan Goldsmith) and his mother, now Mrs. Winlock (Ruth Warrick). They both claim George is out, but he enters from another room and takes Perry into his study. He claims to know nothing of Dianne or Boring, but Perry says he believes that George is really Dianne's supposedly dead father. Dianne would have a claim to a share of his recent wealth through her mother, George's legal wife. No doubt Boring's role in this is as a blackmailer. George says he wants to do the right thing, but needs some time to think. Perry says to meet him that evening at his suite at the Fair Oaks Inn. After Perry leaves, George goes to his desk and pulls out a gun.
That night, Paul comes to the inn, telling Perry he had to give up tailing Boring because he'd been spotted. He gave the job of watching Boring's room from another in the same motel to Dillard. He had been working for Marvin tailing first Dianne and then Boring, but was just fired. Dillard is now angling for a job at the Paul Drake Detective Agency. Perry and Paul enter their suite, where they encounter Della and Dianne, who had recently been visited by Foster. Paul gets a call from Dillard at his surveillance post: "There are cops all over!" Boring is dead.
Later, Dillard fills in Perry and Paul on Boring's visitors that evening. He's reading from his notebook which, because he couldn't have a light on, is barely legible except at the end. First, there was Marvin, then a "society dame", then some guy with his dark hat pulled down, then Dianne, who stayed 16 minutes then came running out, and a few minutes later the motel manager, who summoned the police. Perry confronts Dianne, who says Boring was alive when she left. He next sees George, who agrees to make a fair settlement with Dianne. However, he wants his identify kept secret to protect his "wife", who accepted on faith his murky past and insistence on a sham marriage. Perry notes that at least there was no bigamy. Dianne enters from the next room. Somehow, she heard their conversation and is now almost hysterical. She now admits that when she came to Boring's room, she initially thought he was just passed out drunk and started to search for his copy of their contract. Later, when she touched him, she say blood, realized he was dead, and ran. She called the motel manager, sending him to Boring's room. The Fair Oaks police arrive and arrest Dianne for murder.
At the preliminary hearing, Burger questions Dillard, who says that due to the distance between their rooms and thick curtains, he could neither see nor hear anything of Boring or his visitors once inside. Everything he witnessed is recorded in his notebook, which the police had recovered after Dillard's inept attempt to dump it. He still can't identify the mysterious man in the dark hat. Foster testifies that he explained to Dianne how Boring was trying to cheat her, and that she hurried off, angry. On cross-examination, he admits that he intentionally upset her so she'd lead him to Boring, who owed him money. However, she entered a drug store and he never saw her leave, so he lost her. Perry has him put on a hat for Dillard's benefit, but it does no good.
During a recess, "Mrs. Whitlock" calls Perry and admits to being Boring's earlier female visitor. She's willing to testify that Boring was drunk when she came, in exchange for keeping her fake marriage secret. Perry confronts George, who admits to being the man in the dark hat. He had previously given Boring $10,000 in blackmail. However, after talking to Perry, he returned to the motel to tell Boring he was willing to let his secret come out just to expose Boring as a blackmailer. The threat, with the help of George's gun, was enough to scare Boring into giving back the $10,000. Perry asks if Boring was alive when he left, but George is reluctant to answer - he doesn't want to send her to the gas chamber.
Back in court, while having Dillard rehash the comings and going in his notebook, Perry mentions that he's identified the man in the dark hat. Dillard asks "Who is it?" Perry replies, "Why put him on the stand when it's you who committed murder!" He continues: The times of Dianne's coming and going were clearer than the other notes because they were made later, in good light, and were fake. How is it possible he couldn't destroy the notebook if he really wanted? Would a frightened girl think of pouring whiskey on a man she'd just fought with?" Dillard shouts back, "That's not true - he was drinking it!" - then he realize he's just admitted he was with Boring. Dillard had seen the money earlier and wanted a share, but Boring said that he no longer had it. Dillard tried getting rough, but when he hit Boring the man fell and struck his head. He says he's sorry for trying to frame Dianne.
In Perry's office, George says that he and "Mrs. Whitlock" have agreed that going so far to keep their secret was a mistake. It was mainly done to protect her no-good son Marvin, who was planning to blackmail George himself. He's now been kicked out of the mansion - just a first step in fixing their mistakes. Perry had left the intercom on, so Dianne could hear his story from Della's office. As he sees her, George asks her to come along for a steak dinner on him. Fighting back tears, she says "I might be willing to try a little cottage cheese."
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content