Plot: After elderly Amos Kyne dies, his arrogant son, Walter (Vincent Price), takes over the family news empire. He decides he wants to appoint an executive director to do the heavy lifting. Not knowing which of his three senior executives - representing their wire service, daily newspapers and TV news - to select, he tells them that whomever gets the scoop on a string of sex murders will get the job. TV newsman Ed Mobley (Dana Andrews) wants newspaper editor Jon Day Griffith (Thomas Mitchell) to get the job and sets out to help him find the killer. With information from his police contact, he challenges the killer on air, putting both himself and, especially, his own fiancee, Nancy Liggett (Sally Forrest), in danger.
Alternative Plot: A serial killer is on the loose in New York City. Dubbed "The Lipstick Killer," he has also strangely become the center of a power struggle between three division chiefs in a media empire. The directive from their inexperienced boss, Walter Kyne (Vincent Price), is simple: Whoever catches the killer gets promoted to executive editor. But newspaper editor John Day Griffith (Thomas Mitchell) has one distinct advantage in the form of crack reporter Edward Mobley (Dana Andrews).
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