For Beauty's Sake (1940)

A woman-hating astronomy professor, Bertram Dillsome, inherits a swank beauty salon in a New York hotel from his aunt. His New York arrival beings an unexpected fanfare of publicity arranged by Diane "Dime" Pringle, who had met and fallen in love with Bertram at a college lecture, and has convinced her father, Julius H. Pringle, to allow his press agent, sour-puss Jonathan Sweet, to handle Bertram's publicity. The beauty shop is soon deluged with clients until actress Amy Devore hits it with a fraudulent suit for infecting her face. Bertram finds a recording made by his aunt before her death that hints at mysterious happenings at the salon, involving a Mrs. Kennar. Suspecting that his aunt had been murdered, Bertram and Dime call Mrs. Kennar to the salon but, before they see her, Ann Kuo, a Chinese attendant at the salon, and Rodney Blynn, confront her and she leaps from the window to her death. Amy tells Bertram she will not press her suit if he will allow her to take over the salon but he turns her down over the objections of his attorney Middlesex. Dottie Nickerson, a trusted employee at the salon, sees Kuo steal some letters from a customer's purse and hears her telephone Blynn. Sweet has been attacked by a mysterious assailant and Dottie visits him in the hospital and tells him what she observed. He wants to visit Blynn's apartment, but Dottie hides his trousers.