Amateur Crook

Amateur Crook is a 1937 American romantic comedy film directed by Sam Katzman.

The film is also known as Crooked But Dumb (in the United Kingdom) and Jewel Thief (American TV title).

Joan Barclay as Betsy Cummings takes a job as a secretary, using the alias “Mary Layton”, only to find that her Father (Forrest Taylor as Jerry Cummings) is being cheated by his brokers, Monte Blue as Crone and Jack Mulhall as Jan Jaffin.

She steals the diamond, worth fifty thousand dollars, her Father used as collateral for a loan, which the brokers plan to cheat him out of; and, the chase is on, with the crooked loan sharks and police after her.

Bruce Bennett (Billed as Herman Brix, one of the movie serials “Tarzans”) as Jimmy Baxter, an honest but broke artist, hides her as a mannequin, and helps her get away, in a stolen car.

They just have to keep ahead of everyone after them, until her Father can get back, if he can get back, with the brokers’ crooked henchmen trying to stop him.

Out of luck and almost out of time, they all end up in front of a Justice of the Peace, who tries to fathom out the facts, and whether to jail the pair or marry them, before his dinner gets cold.