The Night of Sudden Death - Recap

Nighttime finds four shadowy figures prowling down a street. They pass a doorway marked “US Mint – Carson City” and stop in front of a street lamp. One climbs atop the other and snuffs the flame inside, then connects a hose to the hissing gas. At the nearby wall another of the men has climbed to the shoulders of the fourth. The second man climbs both of them, and the first man carries the gas line as he climbs all three members of the human ladder. With this help he reaches a tall ledge of the building and works his way slowly but confidently along it and around to a barred window set high in the wall.

Inside the building several men work with printing presses to produce official United States currency. A guard enters the rope and removes a tall hooked pole from the corner. Telling the printers that a little fresh air will be good for them, he uses the pole to operate the window latch and then slides the window slightly open. The skulker on the ledge connects the gas line to one side of a small metal cylinder and feeds another tube from it inside the window. On the floor below the men lose their balance, stagger about and fall. The skulker then adroitly flexes through the bars, over the window and down a nearby pipe. At floor level he lets in his friends.

One of the men reaches for bills from the stack of money but a second dissuades him, grabbing the money and putting it back. The guard enters with a cloth over his mouth and tells the intruders to hurry – the next shift is already in the lobby. As he speaks to one of the men another leaps the pile of money and knocks the guard out with a sap. The first man places a bomb on the corner table and lights the fuse. Three men race out through thr door and the bomber locks it behind them, then climbs the wall to the window and writhes out seconds before the bomb explodes!

Later, Jim West and Artemus Gordon investigate the blast. Mint official Mr. Fall and two other experts accompany them. One tells Artie the explosion could not have occurred accidentally – something introduced extra pressure. An accountant determines that no money has been taken but Fall tells Jim the plates for printing money have been replaced with inferior copies. Three of the mint employees have already died and the fourth man, a guard named Foxx, is critically injured with burns and a concussion. Artemus tells Jim the doctor advised him not to make any bets on the man’s recovery.

Jim wades through ha carnival parade to a hotel where he checks in. The clerk appears when he rings the bell and assigns him room one at the top of the stairs. As Jim mounts the stairs the clerk’s eyes follow him. Upstairs Jim enters his room and begins to stow his clothing when a black clad figure drops on him from above and scissors his legs around Jim’s torso! Jim tries several tactics to relieve the awful crushing pressure without success. Finally he manages to pop his sleeve derringer; when the assailant sees that he releases Jim and flees through the window. Jim collapses to the floor and cannot give chase. Someone knocks on the door; Jim snatches it open and hauls the woman from the hallway into his room. She tells him the guard from the mint has something to say to him but that he must go quickly to speak with the man. Jim presses her for more answers and she reluctantly admits that the guard is her father and that her name is Corinne. Jim turns to get some gear and when he turns back the woman has vanished!

At the hospital a doctor tells Jim the guard’s condition is critical and grants him only a few minutes. Then the patient’s door won’t open. When the doctor tells him none of the doors have locks Jim backs up and kicks the door open. Inside the patient has been wrapped in his own sheets; the doctor tells Jim he’s dying – crushed. He also tells Jim the man never mentioned a daughter. The guard wakes up and Jim asks him about Corinne. All he can say is “If you find Corinne... you will find death!”

Jim meets Artie at the hotel, learning from him that no money has shown up anywhere. Jim’s ribs are sore but not broken. Artie also has no leads on the “human fly” who attacked Jim and no leads on Corinne. About then a waitress brings some drinks Artie had ordered; Jim notes they smell like prussic acid – poison! The agents race out of the restaurant but the waitress is nowhere about. They may have got a break: in the lobby is a poster for “Trevor’s Wonder Circus” that mentions “Corinne the Beautiful!”

Jim goes to the circus grounds. There the performers practice their acts. One in particular catches Jim’s attention: a man bending a stout metal beam with the strength of his legs. He tosses the bent beam to Jim; the agent cannot budge the metal with his own strength and tosses the bar back.

Inside a nearby tent, Corinne is strapped to a wheel. As she spins Warren Trevor takes bow shots at her. Each time he misses he asks her where she went when she left the circus grounds. A lady stands next to him with a pet tiger on a leash. Trevor speaks to her of his plans to buy land and build an empire. He claims he has stalked bigger game than James West.

Outside three acrobats attack Jim. He fights them briefly before Warren Trevor halts the donnybrook with a flaming arrow. The strongman appears and proffers apologies, claiming that sometimes the performers get carried away.

Jim knows Warren Trevor as a big game hunter. Corinne is his bareback rider and the lady with him is Janet Coburn, his animal trainer. Warren Trevor claims he has devoted his life to animals. He wants to know what Jim is doing at the circus. Jim tells Trevor he’s a government agent investigating counterfeiting and regards a circus as a natural place for passing phony bills. Trevor assigns Miss Coburn to give Jim a tour of the circus so that Jim will know where to position spotters when it opens. The tiger accompanies them. They pass a number of performers and rare animals. Jim is more interested in Warren Trevor and Janet Coburn than in the circus. Janet reminds him that the animals respond to her. They can be gentle or they can revert to their basic nature. Soon the pair arrive at a gate. This, Janet tells Jim, leads to a reproduction of the African veldt that is restricted – the animals are sometimes permitted to run loose in there for exercise.

No sooner does Janet leave Jim to look around than a woman appears on the other side of the restricted gate. She wears an acrobat’s costume and carries a parasol. Approaching the gate, she tells Jim that Corinne wants to see him. Jim enters the veldt area and follows the woman along a path and around a lake. She skips up a narrow walk that circles a rock outcropping and tells Jim that Corinne is just on the other side of the rock. He follows. As he circles the rock the path folds underneath him, pitching him into the lake below. Worse, a large crocodile enters the water and begins gliding toward the thrashing agent.

After a thrashing fight, Jim manages to get the best of the crocodile by holding its jaw shut. Drawing a knife, he stabs the reptile several times, finally killing it. When he struggles out of the water the acrobat is gone but Janet Coburn and her tiger stand there. She advises him that the veldt area is restricted for good reason and offers him a dry change of clothes. He hears a mechanical clanking but she dismisses it as a mating call.

Warren Trevor has invited a tribal chief from the Kuban province of central Africa for entertainment and a meal. Jim opines that he’ll be a wet blanket and Janet offers him dry clothes.

Back in her tent Janet suggests Jim join the circus. He claims to get dizzy more than three feet off the ground; she counters by suggesting that the tumblers work close to the ground. Then he asks about a tight rope – wondering whether he’s walking one metaphorically at that moment. Janet tells him that he doesn’t seem to think very positively and he flirts, suggesting that he might think positively about her. Which was exactly what she was hoping was true. Jim eyes her tiger speculatively and says he knows how the birds and the bees work but he’s not so sure about the tiger. Janet tells him the tiger is docile as a kitten, he wonders if that’s true.

Jim mentions the metallic clanking and Jane dismisses it as a mating call. Jim counters that it sounds like a printing press making money and baldly demands Janet tell him where the plates are. She pretends not to hear him; he tells her that in exchange for the plates he can get her new ears. He also mentions how bad prison is for the complexion. Janet leaves the tiger to watch Jim while she freshens up.

In the dinner tent Warren Trevor introduces Chief Vonoma of Kubana (a former French protectorate) to Jim, then tells Jim to help himself while he and the chief finish their business discussion. Lingering at the drink service Jim overhears Trevor and the chief continue their discussion. The chief tells Trevor that an animal domain of the size he proposes will cost a great deal of money and emphasizes that his people wouldn’t even sell land to the French before they left. Trevor says he wishes to establish a place where nature can be cherished and protected from the only creature that kills wantonly: man.

Dinner is server; West finds a place next to Corinne. She warns him that he’s in the trap and that Trevor is merely toying with him. Clowns and performers appear with the food. Corinne admits her relationship with Trevor is strictly financial; she wanted money to look after herself so she introduced him to her father the guard. Trevor betrayed her father. She returned to the circus even after this in the hope of salvaging something, only then learning her father was dead. At that point her goal became vengeance, but she cannot see how that goal can be accomplished now. She does tell Jim that the plates can be found with a press inside the restricted veldt area. Since Trevor has guards and spies everywhere she sees no way to get there. Then one of the clowns approaches the pair and they see it’s Artie in disguise! He tells them to be ready.

The chief asks Trevor how his government will feel about so much money leaving the nation; Trevor responds that the United States government does not restrict citizens from making legal purchases and Jim confirms this. They haggle over price; Trevor offers ten million, then twenty, then forty, and finally the chief tosses out a fifty million dollar figure with a further proviso that the money must be placed within a Swiss account. The chief remains concerned about the United States’ attitude towards such a purchase.

Suddenly clown Artemus tosses two of his juggling balls and they explode into clouds of smoke. In the confusion Jim, Artie and Corinne exit the tent... and slowly back in at gunpoint. Trevor evidently anticipated an escape attempt. But he is angry because they have scared off Chief Vonoma. Jim replies that he can’t hope to succeed and suggests he return the plates. Trevor has other ideas.

Trevor has cocooned Jim, Artie and Corinne inside fresh animal skins and laid them atop a platform. As the sun bakes them the skins will shrink and crush them. The circus performers leave the trio to their horrible fate so that Trevor can salvage his deal wit hthe chief. Jim can again hear a press nearby. The sun bakes them and the skins begin to dry and tighten. Finally Jim writhes off the platform and catches his feet on a peg. As he hangs, his skin splits and tears free. Scissoring back atop the structure he quickly frees Artie and Corinne. Artie hands down Corinne and they visit the tent.

Inside the tent two of the circus folk produce real money illegally. Jim and Artie overpower them following a brief scuffle; Jim and Corinne leave with the plates while Artie stays to burn the illegal currency. Using a lantern he lights the pile of bills. But one of the performers work up early. Sneaking up on Artie he knocks him out.

The performers elsewhere notice the smoke and crowd the only entrance to the veldt area. Jim and Corinne cannot escape and Artie is unconscious. Several frogmarch Artie to Trevor. Jim and Corinne race back into the veldt; Trevor intends to hunt them and retrieve the plates. Janet Coburn thinks this is foolish and sends her tiger Sarang after the fleeing pair; Trevor casually shoots it with his bow. This upsets Janet and she immediately attacks Trevor. Overpowering her easily, he orders her stowed in the cage with Artie. Then he begins to stalk his human prey.

As Jim and Corinne race through the veldt, Trevor and his acrobat pursue. The acrobat clambers over a ridge and leaps onto Jim’s back, once again scissoring his ribs and attempting to crush him. When Trevor appears Corinne warns Jim and he spins; Trevor fires and kills his own man! Jim races away and Trevor almost gets him. The chase continues until Trevor catches up with Corinne near the lake. But it’s a trap! Jim leaps down onto the circus man from the crown of a nearby tree and the two begin to tussle. Jim evades Trevor and races up the path and around the rock. Trevor has evidently forgotten his own trap and races after; the path pitches him into the lake. Another crocodile swims after him and drags him under. His last sound is an agonized scream.

Jim and Corinne return to the circus. Everyone else has cleared out, leaving Artie and Janet Coburn in a cage. Artie flirts outrageously with Coburn but she isn’t interested. Jim leaves to retrieve his own clothing that he’s sure is now dry, leaving Artie in the cage with the two women. Artie snags a pin from Janet’s hair and picks the lock; she wonders why he didn’t think of that hours ago. He tells her he did and suggests they dine. He leaves the tent with a lady on each arm.

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