Private Detective 62 (1933)

A discredited diplomat accidentally finds work with a seedy private detective. The diplomat's ethics later bump up against the detective's illegal methods after their new partnership is financed by a local gambler. When the gambler ends up losing a lot of money to a good-looking socialite lady, the seedy detective is hired by the gambler to frame the lucky lady. He puts his new partner on the case but the ex-diplomat finds out that the lady is a lady, and falls in love. When the frame fails to materialize the detective and gambler fake a scene when the lady is paid off and attacked by the gambler. She shoots him with a fixed gun and runs. Right away, a hood shoots the gambler at the order of the detective and he gets two birds with one bullet...out from his partnership with the gambler (taking over his club and money) and a future blackmail on the lady. But the diplomat partner gets in the way and, by playing a good detective, finds the hood and the evidence to clear the lady and get his former seedy partner arrested. Good exteriors for 1933 and fashions. The detective's secretary is long-time character actress Ruth Donnelly who was Ingrid Bergman's close nun-buddy in "The Bells of St. Mary's." This is an early William Powell, a year before his "Thin Man" fame.