Double Deal
After a dice game one night in the Oklahoma oil town of Richfield, out-of-work engineer Buzz Doyle is broke. Another gambler, Reno Sebastian, has been cleaned out, too, but hostess Terry Miller tips them off that her boss Walter Karns, the big winner, was cheating with loaded dice.
Reno has a ranch and an oil well that has not yet produced. He invites Buzz to come work for him, and Terry, who is close to Reno, thinks it's a good idea because Reno's got just 45 days to strike oil or the well will go to his sister Lilli, as stipulated in their father's will.
Lilli has hated Reno ever since he killed her fiance during a fight while they were gambling. Lilli is determined to get all his holdings now and will stop at nothing. She even tries to seduce Buzz into abandoning Reno and working for her, and when that doesn't work, Lilli threatens that something bad will happen to Buzz if he stands in her way. The corrupt Karns is in love with Lilli and will do her bidding.
Reno is found dead. Lilli is found by the body. But in his will, Reno has left his ranch to Terry, not to his sister. To sort out who's entitled to what, Terry and Buzz seek the advice of Corpus P. Mills, a tipsy attorney who represented the father of Reno and Lilli before he died.
Next it is Lilli who is found dead. Terry now stands to inherit everything, the ranch and the oil well both, but Buzz warns her this means Terry also could be the next victim. Karns comes along, but to everyone's surprise, Karns is killed, too, by a totally sober Corpus Mills, who has been masterminding this scheme from the start, eliminating family members so that he can claim the well for himself. His crimes don't pay, however, and in the end, Terry and Buzz get each other and a gusher of oil.
romantic, murder