The Death Kiss 1932 is an American PreCode mystery film starring David Manners as a crusading studio writer, Adrienne Ames as an actress, and Bela Lugosi as a studio manager. The thriller features three leading players from the previous years Dracula Lugosi, Manners, and Edward Van Sloan, and was the first film directed by Edwin L. Marin.
During the filming of a death scene of The Death Kiss, leading man Myles Brent is really shot and killed. Tonart Studios manager Joseph Steiner Lugosi is assigned to handle the situation. The studio wants to pass it off as a simple accident, but screenwriter Franklyn Drew Manners digs a bullet out of a wall and tells Homicide Detective Lieutenant Sheehan that it is a .38 caliber, while the guns used in the film are all .45s.Sheehan finds a letter in the dead mans pocket, in which Brent wrote to his lawyer that Marcia Lane Ames, his costar and exwife, would not sign a release as beneficiary of his 200,000 life insurance policy. Chalmers, an alcoholic extra with a selfadmitted grudge against Brent for getting him fired as head gaffer electrician, is spotted trying to dispose of a loaded .38, but Drew points out that the gun has not been fired. ........
Source: Wikipedia