I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes

The tap dancer and performer Thomas J. 'Tom' Quinn is unemployed, and his beloved and beautiful wife Ann Quinn is financially supporting their lives with dancing classes. They live in a small apartment, and one night Ann arrives later than usual. She explains that a regular customer who she refers to as Santa Claus likes to pay her extra for conversation. There are cats meowing during the hot night, and Tom inadvertently throws his only pair of shoes through the window to stop the noise, but can't find them when he goes downstairs. The next morning, Ann finds the shoes at the front door and brings them to Tom. During the day, he finds a wallet with a large amount of decades-old 20-dollar bills near a scale at the dance school, and he intends to take it to the police, but Ann convinces him to keep the money, and check the lost and found ads in the newspapers for a week to see whether the owner claims his lost money. Meanwhile, in a building next to Quinn's apartment, a wealthy and stingy man that kept his money at home is found murdered, and his old and peculiar money is missing. Inspector Stevens keeps the missing money secret from the press, and Detective Clint Judd finds Tom's shoeprint in the mud of the victim's backyard. When the couple spends part of the money, the police arrest Tom and Ann, and she realizes that Detective Judd is her Santa Claus. The public defense attorney is not able to prove Tom's innocence, and he is sentenced to death. Now Ann's only chance is that her friend Detective Judd can find the real criminal.