Image from UK Press Sheet

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Argentinian One Sheet

	Mysterious Intruder Columbia Released: April 11, 1946 61 Minutes
	Directed by William Castle Written by Eric Taylor Cast Richard Dix .... Don Gale Barton MacLane .... Det. Taggart Nina Vale .... Joan Hill Regis Toomey .... James Summers Helen Mowery .... Freda Hanson Mike Mazurki .... Harry Pontos Pamela Blake .... Elora Lund Charles Lane .... Det. Burns Paul Burns .... Edward Stillwell Kathleen Howard .... Rose Denning Harlan Briggs .... Brown Suggested by the Columbia Broadcasting System Program "The Whistler" Director of Photography Philip Tannura Produced by Rudolph C. Flothow

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US One Sheet

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Title Lobby Card

Mysterious Intruder (Working Title: Murder Is Unpredictable)

"If you breath a word of this, I'll..."

Edward Stillwell (Paul Burns), kindly old music store owner, visits the office of Don Gale (Richard Dix), private investigator. Stillwell tells Gale that he wishes to have a girl named Elora Lund (Pamela, Blake), traced. It is seven years since he last, saw her. The' qirl's mother had just died and Elora was then fourteen years old. Gale tells Stillwell that if the girl is alive she can be found, but that it will take money. The old man tells Gale that he has only a hundred dollars. Unwilling to tackle the job for so little money, Gale is about to dismiss him, but changes his mind when Stillwell remarks that Elora Lund will pay him any sum for bringing her and Stillwell together. Stillwell refuses any further information except that he has placed an ad in the personal columns of the newspapers to locate the girl.

Three days pass and Stllllwell hears no word from Gale. Then, in the evening, he receives a surprising visitor, a tall, good-looking, blonde (Helen Mowery). She enters the store not knowing that she was followed by a huge, brutish man, Pontos (Mike Mazurki), who edges up to the window and slyly peers in. '. The blonde, Freda Hanson, convinces Stillwell that she is Elora Lund.

"Here's where the fiend made his first mistake!"

The old man tells her he has tried to get in touch with her because among all the odds and ends and antiques that her mother used to being into his store for him to sell, there is an item which if found will bring a fortune, He refuses to go further and tells her to wait while he phones the detective he has engaged to find her. As he leaves he unknowingly leaves the store door slightly ajar.

"A monstrous killer is trapped in his own lair!"

Pontos sneaks in and walks down the basement steps as Freda remains in the back room. When Stillwell returns he gives her a newspaper clipping to read which explains why she is a potentially rich young woman, Pontos comes up from the basement grabs and strikes him. As Stillwell falls the girl screams. Pontos tells her to shut up and pushes her, outside with him.

Gale finds Burns' body, phones police, and tells reporters that the girl who was there is not the real Elora Lund. Actually, he had hired her to impersonate Elora in the hope of thus learning Stillwell's secret.) He hopes that newspaper statements that she is not Elora will cause the kidnapers to release her. Gale then goes to Freda's apartment, finds her there and demands she reveal the murderer and tell him what Stillwell divulged as the secret treasure. After she has given him a fair description of Pontos they are surprised by a knock on the apartment door. Summers (Regis Toomey), the apartment manager, secretly in league with Freda but afraid she is doublecrossing him, says there is too much noise and that Gale will have to leave.

"You'll do as I say or you'll not be doing anything more!"

Gale makes Freda leave with him and they drive to'the section of the city where, Pontos had previously taken her from the store, he tells her to remain in the car and walks up to Pontol's house and sneaks in. Before he can do much foraging around, he is startled by sounds of loud pounding and voices yelling for Pontos to come out. Before Pontos wakes up, Gale swings out through a window and amidst a hail (of) police gunfire drops down to the around. After,running througb several yards he finally reaches the car and Freda drives him away.

"An officer unwittingly assists a killer in making his getaway!"

Detectives Taggert (Barton Maclane) and Burns (Charles Lane), who had been trailing Pontos, visit Gale's apartment and accuse him of being the man who jumped through the window at the Pontos house. They take him to jail on a housebraking charge.They later go to Beechwood Sanitarium where they have located the real Elora Lund. The detectives get her promise to go back to town with them to see Gale and attempt to find out why Stillwell was advertising for her. The next day, after being released from jail, Gale comes to his office and his secretary (Nina Vail) tells him the real Elora Lund is waiting to see him.

Gale, though planning to cheat her tells her what the secret treasure is and that it is rightfully hers and that he wants to help her get it, all in a legal way, but that she must keep away from the police for a few days. Gale also disappears and becomes the object of a great manhunt, being wrongfully accused in the m eantime of Freda's murder. She has been killed by Summers, after he discovers her secret. Gale's secretary finally finds him in a bar and warns him police are after him. He tells her he is going to the music store to find a couple of Jenny Lind wax recordsings that are supposed to be worth $200,000. Gale says Freda's murderer knows aboutthem too and he hopes to meet him there. In disguise, he gains entrance to the Stillwell store basement. He hears voices and sees dimly, the figures of Summers and an accomplice opening up packing cases and suitcases. While Gale watches Summers, discovers a tin box which holds the two cylindrical wax records. They start out, he steps up and confronts them. They volunteer to split all the profits with him. While they are arguing, the police raid th,cellar. During the gun play, Gale has obtained the tin box but is shot by detective Burns and is killed. Before striking Gale, the bullets fired by Burns pierced the tin box and ruined the invaluable records.

"Put your hands up and come quietly... I've got you cornered!"

"Two men... two guns... shoot it out in the shadows!"

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Australian Daybill

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