In September 2025, TCM ran a night of films dedicated to the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which gave me the opportunity to record several lesser known films, a fact I mentioned with Wanda not too long ago. Another movie that aired as part of the salute was The Argyle Secrets. As is my wont, not having heard of it, I recorded it to watch and write up this review.
William Gargan stars as Harry Mitchell, a journalist who, as the movie opens, tells us he's still surprised that everything he's about to tell us about happened in the space of just 24 hours. That's an obvious sign that we're about to get Yet Another Flashback, although in this case it's not that much of a flashback, as it's basically just the previous 24 hours.
Mitchell has a colleague named Allen Pierce, a columnist who covers the Washington scene and has been writing a lot about something called the Argyle Album that will, if published, create a giant scandal. However, Pierce is known to have heart issues and is in hospital as a result, with Mitchell and a photographer visiting to cover the story. Pierce tells Mitchell to finish his work on the Argyle Album if anything should happen to him, at which point Pierce develops an acute issue and dies in his hospital bed. Mitchell is no dummy and figures out a way to keep the other reporters out of the room while he phones in his story. Except that by the time Mitchell gets back, Pierce's body is revealed to have a scalpel in it, while the photographer is missing at first before also being found very much dead.
Mitchell is an obvious suspect even though we know from what's shown that he's not guilty, never mind the opening narration. So he has to figure out a way to get out of the hospital so that he can find the rest of the Argyle Album, since Pierce only gave him a photostat of the cover. The first place to go is Pierce's secretary, Elizabeth Court (Barbara Billingsley), who doesn't have the album and doesn't want to help. It's also quickly revealed that Mitchell isn't the only person looking for the album, which should be obvious considering how we've been told that the publication of the album could lead to major scandals. One such person shows up, a man in a panama hat who gets the obvious nickname of Panama, who's rather violent in his desire to get that album.
So Mitchell has to escape again, going to the apartment of a friend who's out of town. Of course, he's been followed, only not by the police. Instead, a woman calling herself Marla (Marjorie Lord) shows up, offering Mitchell a substantial sum of money if only he'll give her the album, which she doesn't know that he doesn't yet have the album. Marla, for her part, has a bunch of nasty friends who also want the album, which is eventually revealed to have the names of people who were profiteers or collaborators during the recently-concluded World War II, which would explain why so many people so badly want this album.
Mitchell's search takes him all over the city, although at least at some point the police are able to figure out that he in fact did not commit the murder. Granted, he's still a material witness so shouldn't be trying to evade the police either. But then we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we?
The Argyle Secrets is another of those B movies that's surprisingly effective even if the album is more of a macguffin than anything else. It's somewhat reminiscent of a low-budget version of The Maltese Falcon, with Gargan as a journalistic Sam Spade. Gargan is more than good enough here, and the rest of the cast is entertaining although this isn't a movie that's going to be remembered as anything truly classic.
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