It seems lots of people didn't like this film very much but I absolutely loved it. Flynn plays blue blood investment adviser Francis Monroe Warren II with blue blood clients, a blue blood wife, and a blue blood social life. All of this blue blood is making Francis feel tired and run down, so he leads a double life to spice things up. At night and at odd hours during the work day he concocts murder mysteries and covers his absences at home by telling his wife that he was at some board meeting. His most recent publication - under a pen name of course - has his wealthy friends aghast because he used them as characters in his book and only slightly changed their names. The town's whole social register is looking for the real name of this author so they can sue him for damages. Francis' antics begin to catch up with him when he is blackmailed by someone who knows about his double life.
Pretty soon Francis is involved in a real murder mystery involving stolen diamonds, a burlesque queen, threatening letters from an anonymous person, and clues that seem to point back to his own wife as a suspect. On top of everything, his wife and mother-in-law become suspicious of his behavior and have him followed, with the detective drawing all the wrong conclusions.
This is a very different kind of role for Flynn, but he brought to it all of the things that made his swashbuckling films such fun. As Robin Hood he was continually laughing in the face of danger, here he just grins at it, but he still seems to get the upper hand in every situation - always suave and in control. If you want to watch something that is just plain fun I highly recommend this one.
