The House Across the Bay

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• 1940
• 1 hr 28 mins
• Comedy, Suspense, Drama

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A gangster Steve Larwitt (George Raft) falls for one his singers Brenda Bartley (Joan Bennett) at his nightclub. They marry and live the high life for awhile. He gets set up and is sent to Alcatraz on charges of racketeering, for 10 years. She suspects his lawyer Slant Kolma (Lloyd Nolan) having a hand in this problem. She rents an apartment across San Francisco Bay on a hill with a view of Alcatraz Prison. She is befriended by another woman Mary Bogale (Gladys George) whose husband is also jailed but also wants to have fun. One night they meet a charming man, Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon), an airplane engineer and manufacturer, who becomes attracted by Brenda and starts pursuing her, much to her annoyance. He finally wins her over. However, she still loves her husband. Kolma, the lawyer, tries to blackmail her into being his mistress, having sold off her jewelry for his "defense." He is jealous because he saw her at a restaurant with Tim. Brenda finally confides in Mary and tells her about her problems. She returns to singing at an Alameda nightclub to earn money. When she visits her husband in jail, the shyster lawyer is waiting for her. She hides the truth from Steve about the money being gone. Tim sees her singing at the nightclub. She sits down with a regular customer to avoid Tim. Tim gets the message and walks out. He continues to pursue her but, although she has feelings for Tim, she wants to be faithful to her husband because she knows her love is the only thing that helps him get through his days. The lawyer is so jealous about her attentions to Tim, he visits Steve to make insinuations about Brenda's relationship with Tim. Slant also tells Tim about Brenda's gangster husband. Desperate, Steve escapes and looks for Brenda. He wants to kill her but Tim arrives in time with a gun to save Brenda's life. Brenda and Tim tell Steve about Slant setting him up and stealing the money. Steve escapes the nightclub and he tells Brenda to wait for him at a street corner. He goes looking for the lawyer and finds him, shooting him dead. Steve tries to "return" to Alcatraz by swimming back going but he is shot dead by police hunting him. Brenda hears of his demise from a newspaper boy at the street corner. Now widowed, she decides to leave San Francisco. On her airplane flight out, as she sees the airplane flying over Alcatraz, Tim taps her on her shoulder, having followed her onto the plane, and she reunites with him.