The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

The Man Who Cheated Himself is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Felix E. Feist and starring Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt and John Dall.

Director – Felix E. Feist

Writers – Seton I. Miller (screenplay), Philip MacDonald (screenplay)

Cast –
Lee J. Cobb as Lt. Ed Cullen
Jane Wyatt as Lois Frazer
John Dall as Andy Cullen
Lisa Howard as Janet Cullen
Harlan Warde as Howard Frazer
Tito Vuolo as Pietro Capa
Charles Arnt as Ernest Quimby (as Charles E. Arnt)
Marjorie Bennett as Muriel Quimby
Alan Wells as Nito Capa

Watch “The Man Who Cheated Himself” (1950)

Plot

Wealthy socialite Lois Frazer, divorcing her fortune-hunter husband, Howard, finds a gun he had bought. She kills him with it in front of the new man in her life, Lt. Ed Cullen, a homicide detective with the San Francisco police. The twice-married Lois manages to manipulate Cullen into discarding the weapon and moving the body. Cullen ends up assigned to investigate the case, assisted by kid brother Andy, who is new to the homicide division and delays the honeymoon to keep working on his first big case.

The gun is found and used in another killing by a young punk, Nito Capa, and Cullen—with few options to save himself and his paramour Lois—tries to pin both crimes on him. However, Andy keeps connecting Ed to the first murder, catching him in a number of evasions and lies. In desperation, Ed knocks Andy out, ties and gags him, and calls Lois and tells her they need to flee. Police roadblocks seal off the city, but Andy has a hunch where Ed took Lois to hide, at the abandoned ruins of Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge where Andy and his brother played together when they were children. Their escape plan almost works, but they are ultimately arrested. Outside the courtroom, Ed sees Lois affectionately offering to do anything for her lawyer if he can keep her from being convicted. Defeated, Ed offers her a cigarette and they share a final goodbye gaze.