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A story by Earl Derr Biggers, of Charlie Chan fame, was the springboard for the Monogram melodrama Take the Stand. An abrasive Winchell-type columnist (Jack LaRue) manages to accumulate dozens of enemies, at least one of whom has murder on the mind. While many of the victims of the journalist's vitriol are gathered in his outer office, he is heard delivering his nightly radio broadcast, when suddenly he cries "Don't shoot" -- and a shot is fired. The detective (Russell Hopton) can't figure out "who done it" since all the suspects have air-tight alibis: nor can he run a ballistics test, since there isn't any bullet. The solution to the mystery is one which would be recycled numerous times in the future, most memorably by the Dick Tracy comic strip.