Jackie Cooper does a fine job cast against type in this droll "Suspense" story, notable for its cleverer than clever story resolution.
It begins with a shot of an open safe and a body lying next to it, as Cooper is shown as a murderer and a jewel thief. The building's night watchman calls in the police who start a thorough search of the premises to try and catch him, but Cooper escapes into an office on the floor above the jeweler's shop, where a meeting of the goofy International Association of Assassins is being held.
They're in fact mystery writers who greet him as Mr. Anderson, a renowned mystery author who is late for a scheduled address to the meeting about his latest book. Imposter Cooper is faced with the nightmarish prospect of everyone expecting him to give a lecture on something he knows nothing about and he tries to flee, but with the police nearby he immediately returns and tries to wing it.
He tells them a murder story that is actually a recounting of what he has just done at the jewelry shop, which fascinates the gathered authors, who are eager to find out how his "fictional" character escaped and solved his predicament. Suddenly the real author Mr. Anderson shows up and everyone's frightened, as Cooper pulls out his gone and takes a female author hostage, trying to escape. Next twist is that the authors take note of a discrepancy in Cooper's story with what the real Anderson reports about the murder in the building, and they begin to jump to all sorts of odd conclusions and assumptions (the way their obsessed minds work), concluding that the REAL Mr. Anderson, not Cooper is the murderer!
This complicated but engrossing mystery is resolved in a remarkable fashion, making for a highly original, and satirical, little mystery story. Ensemble cast, including a young Mildred Natwick as leader of the society, does a fine job in support of Jackie.