Whirlpool (1934)
Buck Rankin, the owner of a traveling carnival, marries a local woman named Helen and decides to turn his life around. Unfortunately, a violent altercation results in Rankin being sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. Despite her husband's situation, Helen promises to wait for him, but Rankin forges a letter claiming that he drowned while attempting to escape from prison.
Two decades later, Rankin is released from prison, changes his identity to "Duke Sheldon," and becomes a successful nightclub owner with connections to organized crime. Meanwhile, Helen has remarried to a judge, and her daughter Sandra has become a journalist. When Sandra is assigned to write an exposé on the notoriously private "Duke Sheldon," who is set to provide an alibi for a notorious mobster in a high-profile trial, she recognizes Rankin from a photo her mother kept. The two have an emotional reunion.
Rankin now faces a difficult decision: should he testify at the trial and reveal his identity, exposing Helen as an unintentional bigamist, or should he protect Helen and Sandra by not testifying and incurring the wrath of the mob?
Books with substantial mentioning of Whirlpool
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James Robert Parish Prison Pictures from Hollywood, Plots, Critiques, Casts and Credits for 293 Theatrical and Made-for-Television Releases Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 1991 |