Signe Hasso and John Warburton are survivors of a plane crash who somehow end up mugging the unconscious Edmund Gwenn, finding the key to his briefcase taped to his back and locate four wills and an order for dinner inside the case. The fact that they are able to tape the key back on Gwenn (who ultimately wakes up) and not be discovered shows the ridiculousness of the concept which takes most of the film's short running time to get to the point of what's going on. James Craig somehow gets involved in the picture and after Warburton ends up a murder victim, his grieving widow doesn't take much time in getting over him with Craig and on the path to solving the intrigue involving these wills.
What it's all about, so late in the war, is so messed up and comes out of left field. Audrey Totter gets to warble a brief song and that old character actress Mabel Paige gets involved too as one of the benefactors of one of the wills. To see Gwenn, just on the brink of an Oscar for playing Santa Claus, playing a nefarious character, is intriguing in itself, but the whole set-up and denouncement just wreaks of too many implausibilities. Hasso and Craig share absolutely no chemistry and there's certainly no revelation of why Hasso and Warburton were rolling Gwenn in the first place.
What it's all about, so late in the war, is so messed up and comes out of left field. Audrey Totter gets to warble a brief song and that old character actress Mabel Paige gets involved too as one of the benefactors of one of the wills. To see Gwenn, just on the brink of an Oscar for playing Santa Claus, playing a nefarious character, is intriguing in itself, but the whole set-up and denouncement just wreaks of too many implausibilities. Hasso and Craig share absolutely no chemistry and there's certainly no revelation of why Hasso and Warburton were rolling Gwenn in the first place.