Hard Boiled Mahoney
Sach (Huntz Hall) just lost his job as an assistant to a private detective, but he wasn't paid. Slip (Leo Gorcey) goes with him down to the detective's office to demand payment, but finds the office empty. A woman enters the office and mistakes Slip for the detective and convinces him to take on a case to find her sister after offering a $50 retainer.
The only clue they have is the spiritualist Dr. Carter (Pierre Watkin). They track him down, only to see him being murdered. Slip is knocked unconscious and when he wakes a woman is there calling the police. Slip identifies her as the other woman's sister, but she denies it. After asking questions, Slip believes the woman is not the other one's sister and they assist each other in escaping the police and make plans to meet up later.
Slip and Sach then go to see the fortune teller Armand (Dan Seymour) and find out that the two women aren't related, they both just want to get back incriminating letters that Armand has that he uses to blackmail them. Eventually the good and bad guys meet up at Louie's Sweet Shop and a fight takes place. As soon as it ends, Louie's waitress, Alice (Patti Brill), arrives with the police and takes away Armand and his gang. The boys then all take turns hitting Slip on the head with their hats after they discover that he used the entire $50 trying to get the information to solve the mystery.
intrigue, murder