The Desperate Man

Newspaperman Conrad Phillips is vacationing when he encounters Jill Ireland who's trying to make the leap from ladies' features to crime. A man has been found dead, and the two of them track down the site of the murder to a nearby castle's moat. When the police give up, all the other reporters follow them, but Miss Ireland has a hunch: she thinks the man was murdered by someone who was looking about the castle, and will return. Phillips goes with her and they discover William Hartnell with a gun. He holds Miss Ireland captive while he sends Phillips on errands, preparatory to fleeing.

There are some subplots cut from this very short B feature, like smarmy Charles Gray and his desire to make of Miss Ireland something other than a reporter. The two leads vanish in the face of Hartnell's vicious crook; it's quite a performance in a very minor crime film.