So You Won't Talk (1940)

"Whiskers," the timid book reviewer on a metropolitan daily newspaper is fired, along with his girlfriend, switchboard-operator Lucy Walters. They agree to meet for dinner to discuss a book Whiskers is writing. Deciding to change his appearance as well as his ways, Whiskers has his beard shaved off at a barber shop. As he is leaving, he notices people shrinking from him in fear; without his whiskers, he is the exact image of "Brute" Hanson, a gang-leader just released from prison. He runs into "Dude" Heath, a Hanson henchman, and when he fails to recognize him, Dude thinks he has gone stir-crazy. Dude telephones Maxine Carewe, Hanson's sweetheart. Henchmen Dude, Maxie and "Dopey" kidnap Whiskers. He is knocked out and awakens in Maxine's apartment clad in pajamas. He leaps from the bathroom window, finds a raincoat, galoshes and umbrella in the basement and takes a taxicab to Lucy's apartment. Meanwhile, Hanson's gangland rival, "Bugs" Linaker, decides to kill Hanson. Since he is hot and on the spot, Hanson disguises himself with a beard and soon friends and enemies alike are unaware of which man is whom.