Fortune Is a Woman

Plot

London insurance investigator Oliver Branwell goes to Louis Manor to probe a recent fire. Tracey Moreton lives there with his wife Sarah and his mother. He introduces Branwell to them and to his neighbor and cousin, Clive, and shows him a valuable painting badly damaged in the blaze. Moreton isn't aware that Sarah and Branwell were once romantically involved.

The insurance company pays out on the damage and the painting. Months later, on another case, Branwell meets a woman, Vere Litchen, who has a painting that is identical to the one that was ruined. Branwell becomes suspicious that an insurance fraud took place. The next time he and Sarah speak, she asks questions about the best way to start a fire.

When Branwell sneaks into the manor to check whether the damaged painting is a copy, he finds Moreton's dead body and a fire that eventually engulfs the house. Sarah is beneficiary of her husband's insurance policy but Branwell remains suspicious of her involvement.

Vere's rich fiance, Croft, who gave her the painting, is shown a photo of Sarah and denies she was the woman who sold it to him. A relieved Branwell proposes to Sarah and they leave on a honeymoon. Now the police begin to consider him a suspect.

Blackmailed by a shadowy figure, Branwell and Sarah follow him and discover that Clive was the scheme's mastermind, and that the dead man's mother, Mrs. Moreton, had accidentally caused her son's death, believing him to be in the act of setting the second fire.

Cast